Italian method boosts quality

Luxury clothing brand Loro Piana is assisting Chinese goat breeders to produce better wool. Sun Yuanqing reports.

China is known for the quantity of cashmere it produces, but not necessarily for its quality. But that is changing as local brands and breeders shift their focus. Italian luxury brand Loro Piana, a key name in the apparel industry, has also joined the effort.

In November, two couples from among the herders in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and other areas in China - Shi Yushe and his wife Wang Cunxiang, and Zhan Fayu and his wife Li Juying - received the Loro Piana Cashmere of the Year Award in Beijing, based on the fineness, length and other attributes of their cashmere.