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.