Alpaca Day

Peru houses over 80% of the world's alpaca population. Herding this species constitutes one of the primary agricultural activities in high-Andean zones, sustaining approximately 94,000 alpaca-herding families who, through their daily effort, not only drive the alpaca value chain but also keep the tradition and ancestral heritage of Andean people alive.

In this context, as every year in Peru, National Alpaca Day was commemorated on August 1st, as established by the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation via Ministerial Resolution Nº 429-2012-AG. Its objective is to revalue alpaca herding and its genetic wealth—which contributes to the family economy of the Andean resident—as well as its contribution to food and nutritional security, cultural diversity for ecotourism, and the traditional technologies surrounding it. In this way, the resolution aims to stimulate the consumption of its products and subproducts and highlight the labor of the alpaca herder.