It is a proud and happy moment for local business House of Alpaca.
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The House of Alpaca has emerged as a winner of the 2019 ACT Chief Minister's Export Awards for Agribusiness, Food and Beverages category in ACT and region.
The award in this category is given to a business for outstanding international success in the field of agricultural products, services or technology, including processed foods and beverages, and the forestry, fisheries and fibre industries.
It has always been our vision to make 100 per cent Australian-made Alpaca products.
- William Ham
"It has been our dream to own this business. That's why we took our time and waited before starting our business House of Alpaca nearly a decade ago," business owner William Ham said.
"It has always been our vision to make 100 per cent Australian-made alpaca products.
"We have tried to push that idea through our business.
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"We have modified sheep processing and have adapted that to alpaca processing through scouring and carbonising. Now we are able to make lot of products in a manner which is similar to wool products."
Mr Ham was working in Sydney and decided to make the move to Wheeo over a decade back.
"We moved here from Sydney as it is a fine wool country area," he said.
"We had a farm in Wheeo and have been breeding alpacas for 28 years.
"Our journey basically started from that place as we had our first manufacturing unit there," he said.
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It has been close to a decade since they started their business House of Alpaca in Goulburn.
Today, the business exports alpaca fibre locally and to several other countries including New Zealand, Taiwan, China, Japan, India and Bangladesh.
The House of Alpaca was listed as a finalist in categories of 'Agribusiness, Food and Beverages', 'Exporting to Asia' and 'Regional Exporter'.
After emerging as the winner at state level, they will compete for the category at national level on December 3 in Parliament House in Canberra.
"We will be travelling to Canberra on the day of the event," he said.
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