WORLD'S SUPPLY AND CONSUMPTION.
At present Asia Minor and South Africa can be regarded as the two leading producers of mohair. The Asia Minor exports vary considerably, according to the price allowed, and as no manufactured stuff is exported, one gets a fair idea of the amount produced. It may be broadly stated that the Asia Minor clip amounts to about nine million pounds annually. That of South Africa amounts to about ten million pounds, and the United States now produces about one million pounds annually. Of this production a very large percentage of that coming from all these countries may be regarded as inferior stuff. We mean by this, that the Angora goat raising industry is yet in its infancy, and that much of the mohair produced is sheared from goats which have been bred from the common hair variety. Many of the characteristics of the fleece of the common goat still persist in the mohair.
From the foregoing estimate the world's supply of mohair may be stated as twenty million pounds annually. Australia is as yet producing only a very small amount.
Practically eighty-five to ninety per cent. of the world's supply of mohair is handled in Bradford, England. Nearly all of the South African and Turkish stuff is shipped directly to Bradford, a small amount of the Constantinople export coming to America, but a large part of the American import comes from Liverpool, England. At Bradford the raw material is manufactured, some of the manufactured stuff being exported as yarn, but the larger part is used to produce the finished article. The remaining ten or fifteen per cent. is manufactured in the United States. At times the demand for mohair goods stimulates the demand for raw material, and the United States has been known to use from twenty to twenty-five per cent. of the world's supply. To recapitulate, the United States produces five per cent. of the world's annual supply of raw mohair, and manufactures from ten to twenty-five per cent. of the world's annual production.
MOHAIR PRICES.
The price of mohair has fluctuated with the caprice of fashion. Supply and demand are the essential factors in its valuation, but demand has been so influenced by the requirements of fashion in the past that one finds a wide range in price for the raw material. In a report issued by the Bradford Observer we find the price ranging from fifty cents a pound in 1856, to eighty cents in 1866, ninety cents in 1876, and then down to thirty cents in 1886 and 1896. In 1903 the average price in the United States was about thirty-five cents a pound, and for 1904 about thirty cents a pound.
READY FOR THE SHEARERS.
To-day there is a demand for mohair, regardless of fashion. During the past two years the price of raw material has been low, but there has been a margin of profit in the industry, and considering the fact that fashion's decree has eliminated the manufacture of luster fabrics for the present, the mohair producer can feel assured that there will be a steady market for his material. With the occasional good times when luster goods are in demand, the mohair grower should do well.