\nThe price of silk cocoons, the raw material for the fabric used in expensive items of clothing, has doubled since the start of 2009 to Rmb92,700 ($13,570) a tonne in mid-April, according to the China Cocoon and Silk Exchange.<\/p>\n
European merchants and weavers said the price of raw silk, the variety traded internationally, had followed a similar trend.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is rising every day, every week,\u201d said Christian Morel Journel, a silk merchant in Lyon, France.<\/p>\n
The urbanisation of the key silk-producing region around Shanghai has reduced the land available for mulberry trees, whose leaves are the only thing silk worms eat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s as if you had a very large city in Champagne on the soil of the famous wine,\u201d Mr Morel Journel bemoaned. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Urbanization in China is leading to a rise in the price of silk worldwide, the Financial Times reports: The price of silk cocoons, the raw material for the fabric used in expensive items of clothing, has doubled since the start of 2009 to Rmb92,700 ($13,570) a tonne in mid-April, according to the China Cocoon and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[116,2,5],"tags":[328,625,2664,1311],"class_list":["post-69462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","category-economy","category-society","tag-agriculture","tag-exports","tag-industrialization","tag-urbanization","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n
Silk Price Soars as China\u2019s Farmland Shrinks<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n