Alpacas sold in £1m deal

A total of 250 of the wooly South American animals will moving across the county to an undisclosed farm in West Sussex, where they'll be bred to eventually take advantage of the growing demand for alpaca wool in China.

But fans of the creatures can rest assured, hundreds more of them will be staying in Glynde at the alpaca stud farm owned by EP Cambridge UK.

The deal has been struck with Moonsbrook Alpacas, who have purchased a pedigree herd of Suri alpacas for a total of 1 million.

A spokesman for EP Cambridge UK said:, 'At the moment China and Asia love alpaca wool.

'There have been restrictions on the numbers which could be taken from their home country of Peru, and Austrailia and the US are the leading exporters.

'In the UK we are trying to build up our herds and in 10 years time we'll be able to hold our own in the export market.

'We are also working on improving the bloodlines of the animals so that we'll have the finest wool.'