<ul>

<li><b>WHAT:</b> National Alpaca Week</li>

<li><b>WHERE:</b> Malakai Alpaca Stud, 17 Miners Rest Road, Miners Rest; and Creswick Woolen Mills, 20 Railway Parade, Creswick</li>

<li><b>WHEN:</b> Saturday and Sunday, 10am - 4pm, for the following two weekends</li>

</ul></blockquote>

SUPERSOFT, super cute and potentially a lucrative way to make money.

From this Saturday until the following Sunday, it is national alpaca week, as the industry tries to move further into the mainstream.

The Malakai Alpaca Stud at Miners Rest will conduct open days Saturday and Sunday this weekend, and again next weekend.

Meanwhile the Creswick Wool Mills will have its own alpaca opening over the two weekends with more alpacas and examples of products made out of alpaca wool.

"It is to allow people to get up close and personal with alpacas, and to educate people why we breed them," Malakai stud owner Shane Carey says.

"Alpacas aren't quite seen as mainstream yet. We are trying to teach people you can make a living from them.

"There are all sorts of facets to the industry. There is fleece and an emerging meat industry.

"At our stud in Miners Rest, we have taken on the Victorian distribution for alpaca meat. It will be in restaurants very soon. We're finalising it at the moment."

Malakai has 450 alpacas, making it the largest stud in the region. There are about a dozen other alpaca farms in the surrounding district as well.

Australia is the second biggest producer of alpaca wool outside of South America, with about 250,000 alpacas across Australia.

"Alpaca wool is super soft because it doesn't have lanoline through the fleece that sheep have. It's suitable for any garment that might be made of wool, such as jumpers, scalves, doonas, anything really," Mr Carey says.

"We're never going to compete with sheep's wool. It is a different market altogether. It is still a niche market.

"Alpaca wool growers have united to produce superfine alpaca bails which are being exported to Europe."

Then there is the other, slightly touchier subject of alpaca meat.

Shane Carey says alpaca tastes similar to lamb. He said sales had taken off in New South Wales, and was hopeful of similar success in Victoria.

"It's just about getting people's minds around eating alpaca," he says.

"A lot of people tell us they're too cute, but so are lambs, and so are piglets."