Mohair S. Africa, Zegna Supplier, Acts to Save Goats

Mohair South Africa, which promotes an industry that produces 54 percent of the world’s supply of the fiber, will subsidize sales to preserve the world’s biggest Angora goat herd, which supplies Italian suit-makers such as Ermenegildo Zegna SpA.

The 29 percent gain in the rand against the dollar since the beginning of 2009 to a near three-year high and a halt to exports of mohair to China after an outbreak of Rift Valley fever is threatening the existence of the country’s 865,000-strong Angora goat herd, Deon Saayman, general manager of Mohair South Africa, said in an interview today.