While global luxury brands still worry about raw material stability, Erdos has already answered with a set of numbers: over half of China's and nearly 40% of the world's cashmere garment processing capacity, plus a complete closed loop from raw fiber to finished apparel. On August 25, at the PH Value Knitting Expo at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, 15 local enterprises appeared collectively, behind which stands a judgment repeatedly emphasized by Jia Zhanrong, president of the Erdos Council for the Promotion of International Trade: resources are irreplaceable, but value must be reconstructed.
Resource Moat and Industrial Agglomeration
Erdos's confidence first comes from the monopoly of germplasm resources. Alpas cashmere is renowned for its fineness, whiteness, and luster, and is protected by national geographical indication, known as "diamond fiber" in the industry. More critically, this resource cannot be replicated elsewhere—the combination of geographical latitude, humidity, and pasture conditions forms a natural industrial barrier. Though regions like Qinghe in Hebei have developed processing clusters, their raw materials heavily depend on Erdos supply, giving the latter pricing power at the source.
On this basis, Erdos has built an integrated "pastoral-industrial-trade" chain. From raw fiber collection, combing, to spinning, weaving, and garment making, over a hundred supporting enterprises cluster around the leading company. For international buyers, this means lower transaction costs and more controllable quality. As global supply chains become volatile, this full-chain control is translating into tangible order advantages.
Three Leaps from Manufacturing to Branding
Raw material advantage is just the starting point. Erdos faces a core challenge: how to sell "soft gold" at its true value. Benchmarking against Italian industrial clusters, the gap lies in brand premium and design soft power. To address this, the local government launched a "brand value breakthrough action," with three key paths.
First, design empowerment. Designers from France, Germany, and Italy have been introduced to integrate prairie totems with modern knitting. During Paris Fashion Week 2024, over 20 enterprises appeared at the Palais Brognia, which is not just a showcase but a probe into international aesthetic discourse. Second, smart manufacturing. Digital technologies are used for flexible production and rapid response, with scientific methods like molecular breeding and green dyeing running through the chain to meet personalized demands. Third, brand echelon. While supporting the main brand to enter European and American markets, it also encourages distinctive brands like Dongfeiyan and Palanti to reach consumers directly via cross-border e-commerce, forming a multi-dimensional export matrix.
Deepening Global Market and Restructuring Industrial Ecology
Erdos's opening-up strategy is shifting from "spreading a wide net" to "deep incubation." The international cashmere and wool exhibition, held annually since 2018, reached its eighth edition in July 2025, attracting exhibitors from France, Italy, the UK, and Japan. Meanwhile, the third consecutive participation in the PH Value Knitting Expo has shown improving results, with companies like Shuangqi and Dongfeiyan establishing overseas channels in the US, France, Italy, and the UK.
The next focus is the "global market deep cultivation action"—selecting fashion core cities like Paris and Milan for in-depth operation rather than spreading thin. This strategic shift implies that Erdos is no longer satisfied with order harvesting but aims to embed itself in the high-value segments of the global fashion supply chain. Leveraging platforms like the Osaka World Expo to promote industry-culture-tourism integration is about exporting cultural symbols, not just products.
Three Implications for the Industry
Erdos's path offers reference for the textile industry. First, resource-based industries must proactively cross the "resource curse," or they remain at the bottom of the value chain. Second, the competitiveness of industrial clusters depends not only on scale but also on the ability to define aesthetic standards. Third, international market development requires long-termism—from exhibition participation to channel building to brand incubation, each step accumulates compounding benefits.