Sustainable Cashmere Union/ Тогтвортой Ноолуур Холбоо

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- Sustainable Cashmere Union -Mongolia: Ethical and responsible raw material

Sustainable Cashmere Union (Union) is a local Mongolian association officially established in 2017 to market locally and internationally -through the luxury industry- dehaired and certified cashmere fiber in a responsible way. It is the result of herders grouping in cooperatives since 2014, in the arid region of Bayankhongor. Thanks to the establishment of the first sustainable cashmere supply chain in the world by the French NGO “Agronomes et Vétérinaires Sans Frontières” (AVSF) that still provides technical and financial assistance to this day. Union creation history is closely linked to the herder’s situation.Herders operate in a fragile ecosystem where the hardness and arduousness of the work are notorious. Negative winter temperatures oscillate around -30 ° and can drop to -40 °, making the work difficult. When the summer season, after having faced the strong spring winds, drought and water scarcity take place. Climate change and the increase of herd number in recent years have created a loss of food grasses, caused soil desertification and favored the desert advancing. Traditionally, ancestors exerted a balance between the number and the species of animals to maintain a balance with their biotope. Union is striving to return to this ancestral mode of pastoralism. Prioritizes the quality of livestock, through the selection of the best breeds, and reduces the quantity of livestock in order to preserve pasture areas. Thanks to the rotating work structure and the pasture management through PUG (Pasture Users Group) creation, the herds are better distributed in space, for the sake of preserving vegetation and water management. Union interacts with distribution networks sharing common values and ensures sustainability, traceability, all along the value supply chain. Union fully manages local marketing as well as international marketing and export of dehaired cashmere certified, avoiding intermediaries. Union secures a decent profit accompagnied by a capital gain, as well as a fair distribution of profit, to herders’ livelihoods and cooperatives. 80% of herder’s annual salary comes from the sale of cashmere.