Angora rabbit pilot project for wool

[caption id="attachment_69965" align="alignright" width="300"] FURRY BUSINESS: Equipt Consulting managing director Donevin Lesch and model Casandra Fort wearing a scarf made from Angora rabbit fibre -[/caption]

PILOTING a new industry in the Eastern Cape, a Port Elizabeth company plans to produce angora rabbit wool by April.

The angora rabbit pilot project plans to bring some competition to the popular angora goats’ mohair industry, for which the Eastern Cape’s producers are internationally renowned.

Equipt Consulting plans to harvest the first wool from the company’s angora rabbits by April after buying 100 rabbits for this first-of-a-kind project in the province.

The company’s managing director, Donevin Lesch, who is also the manager of investor services at Coega Development Corporation, said the animals would be bred, groomed and have their wool harvested every four months on his smallholding in Murray Park outside Port Elizabeth.

“The animals will be well taken care of. No harm is done to them when they are hand-plucked for their wool. It is natural for the angora rabbit to shed their wool every three to four months.”

He said the pilot phase of the project, which received funding of R850 000 from the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC), was to quantify the parameters of turning the labourintensive farming project into a commercial business that could be replicated elsewhere in the Eastern Cape. The pilot has already created six full-time jobs.

-Cindy Preller