Tengri launches cashmere alternative

British brand and noble yarn technology specialist Tengri is introducing British-made Mongolian yarns that could offer a sustainable solution to cashmere.

The new Mongolian yak fibre yarn manufactured in the UK is being launched this month and will offer manufacturers sustainable and ethically produced fibres with a 100 percent traceable supply chain provenance.

The Khangai Noble Yarns Collection comes from raw fibre supplied by Mongolian herder co-operatives, where Tengri has established a ‘fairshare’ business model involving more than 1,500 nomadic herder families in the steppes of Mongolia.

The British company is stating that the new fibres provides buyers with a “conscientious solution” to the weakened supply chains and quality of key raw materials such as cashmere.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, 90 percent of Mongolia is fragile dry-land, under constant threat of increasing desertification. Conservation biologists have found that unsustainable levels of cashmere goats and other environmentally damaging livestock have consumed up to 95 percent of forage across the Tibetan plateau, Mongolia and northern India, leaving just 5 percent for wild animals to graze.

Founder of Tengri, Nancy Johnston, said: “The fashion industry is experiencing, first-hand, the detrimental impact that economic and environmental challenges are having on the root source of much of its premium yarns. This can be seen in the supply and quality of the world’s cashmere produce. The current landscape is unsustainable and we must make a change.

“I launched Tengri having lived with Mongolian herder families, experiencing the challenges that put pressure on their lives and livelihoods. I saw an opportunity where a collective movement of design, fashion, ethics, business, environmental activism and individual consumer choice could come together to do good and we can make a difference.”

Image: Tengri