Standards Development

Scope

This standard specifies the quality classification, labeling requirements, test methods, inspection rules, packaging and labeling of dehaired cashmere.

This standard is applicable to labeling the quality of dehaired virgin cashmere. This standard is not applicable to dehaired cashmere tops, pelt-shed cashmere and recycled cashmere.

Purpose

Cashmere goats mainly distribute in the region of north altitude 35°-55°, east longitude 5°-120°, yield and quality of cashmere produced from different goat breeds vary a lot, cashmere yield per year by one goat ranges largely from 50 grams to 500 grams. Main cashmere producing countries are China, Russia, Mongolia, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey as well. As of 2017, raw cashmere produced in China is about 18 thousand tons, which accounts for 60% of the total global production, the annual output of dehaired cashmere exceeds 3000 tons, accounting for approximately 60% of the world trade volume. Meanwhile, as a rare high-end textile raw material and known as "soft gold" and "diamond fibre", the superb natural quality of cashmere is irreplaceable.

Cashmere products, such as cashmere sweaters, overcoats etc., are highly favoured as luxury consuming products at high price by consumers from various countries(USA, EU, Japan, China etc.) owing to its unique quality. But until now, there is not any united standard all around the world to indicate it’s labeling specification like that for wool, which is ISO 18103: 2015 Superfine woven wool fabric labeling -- Requirements for Super S code definition, which can be used for reference by various countries in goat breeding, cashmere production, marketing, trading, quality supervision as well as for import and export inspection aspects, and results in the insufficient assurance and unhealthy development of cashmere quality and market.

Mean fibre diameter is a crucial parameter to evaluate the quality of cashmere and a key parameter to reflect the quality performance of cashmere products. Cashmere fibre is becoming coarser and coarser due to the diversification of breeding environments and cashmere acquiring methods. Other parameters, such as average fibre length, have also been affected. Meanwhile, since there is lack of universal standard as such to regulate pricing driven by quality, herders pay more attention to goats population rather than cashmere quality. So, it is urgent and necessary to develop a unified international standard for quality classification of cashmere to regulate the quality labeling, and to eventually change the breeding environments and to improve the cashmere quality, to better protect the scarce resources of cashmere and to maintain the legitimate rights of consumers.

Consider the following: Is there a verified market need for the proposal? What problem does this standard solve? What value will the document bring to end-users? See Annex C of the ISO/IEC Directives part 1 for more information. See the following guidance on justification statements on ISO Connect: https://connect.iso.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=27590861