The specialist wool mill run by The Natural Fibre Company is licensed for organic production by The Soil Association. The company, based at Launceston in Cornwall close to the Devon border, is licensed both to spin and dye organic fleece.

Some people believe that organic products are just a fad and offer little or nothing more than conventional goods. The facts tell a different story. Although the recession has changed things, supermarkets have been devoting more space to organic produce and we are finding that customers are becoming increasingly interested in products made from organic wool.

Farmers have a lot to do before they can produce fleece that is genuinely organic and to maintain organic status we have to separate their wool from the rest and specially purge all the machines before our specialist production runs.

When we process wool, we cannot accept it as organic unless it complies with Soil Association requirements. Contact us to discuss the various equivalents. Please note that the requirements are already agreed with Organic Farmers and Growers and Demeter which has an international standard covering 43 countries.

An accreditation certificate means that there is an audit trail of evidence, from the animals themselves to the storage, transport, processing and finishing.

As the Natural Fibre Company is licensed for organic production it is inspected regularly for accreditation (License Number X9061) by the Soil Association as are the farmers who supply the fleece.

In order to have their fibre processed organically, customers must send it to us in clearly-marked packaging (which we can supply) and be able to produce copies of their current certificate. They also have to sign our organic compliance statement.

Please note that there are organic husbandry standards in place for wool and mohair, but not yet for alpaca - even if it comes from an organic farm. So alpaca cannot yet be processed to approved organic standards.