Our breed society has recently sent out a letter to members putting up the registration fee for imports quite substantially. They are hoping it will stop ‘dumping’ of inferior animals in the UK. We find this slightly odd as it is not the dumping of inferior animals that some breeders are worried about but the import of any animals as the money paid for those animals tends to go whizzing overseas rather than staying here. Obviously we need a sustainable alpaca industry in this country and I am sure there are quite a lot of alpaca owners who have very high end animals, bred here, to sell and are concerned that they may not be able to compete against the ‘hype’ generated by the imports. A debate is needed so that the British Alpaca Society membership can make an informed decision about whether the registry should be closed to imports. There are arguments for and against and the most telling argument in favour is an economic one. The argument against tends to be about bringing in more genetics. Lots of people would argue that the vast majority of the lines are already here. However if the registry was closed and some sort of genetic evaluation scheme was brought in, the home bred animals are likely to improve at a much faster pace. Big gains can be made in fineness and density in the fleeces and that would fuel the development of a truly commercial fleece business. I am hoping that the breed society will get papers written for and against and send them out to the members so that everyone can have a good think about it before the AGM in March. It would be even better if those arguments could be had without rancour – some hope!
lesley beazer –
I support you here. well said.