2011-05-05 09:51

Recently, they have been able to buy a new pick-up truck and build several cement houses for family members.

"Our standard of living gets better and better," Meng said, herding dozens of long-horned goats around a yard strewn with dung and straw.

"Before, our life was bad, but now it's great. We can eat as much as we want - we make more and more money," she said.

China is the world's fastest-growing market for luxury goods and is forecast to be the biggest by 2015, according to the consultancy Pricewaterhousecoopers.

A female shopper at a wholesale outlet in Ordos, where a 100-percent cashmere sweater sells for up to 2,000 yuan, said she liked the soft fiber because it is comfortable.

"Our products are not considered that expensive - it is more expensive to buy them in the stores in Beijing," a saleswoman said.

The picture is less rosy for China's cashmere factories, whose profit margins have been eroded by soaring wool prices and increasing competition from other Chinese manufacturers, enticed by the growing market.

"The business is becoming more and more difficult," said Yang Wang, the owner of a factory in Ordos which makes about 100,000 sweaters each year, mainly for the Chinese market.

"Cashmere factories are popping up everywhere in China. And there are more than 10 factories of the same size in Ordos."

While Wu Suqing may not be able to afford one of the beautiful sweaters she makes, she understood why people are prepared to pay the equivalent - or more - of her entire monthly salary for the luxuriant wool.

"It feels nice and is comfortable to wear," she said.

Agence France-Presse