
When the Great Alpaca Bubble Burst - kgwgk
https://priceonomics.com/when-the-great-alpaca-bubble-burst/
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eesmith
I'll add another animal to the list of previous agricultural speculative
bubbles - emu:
[http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1998-02-15/news/1998046051_...](http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1998-02-15/news/1998046051_1_big-
bird-emu-grayson-county)

> It's a long way from the emu craze of the early 1990s, when a productive
> breeding pair fetched $50,000 or more.

> Those Texas-sized prices and promoters' heady promises that low-cholesterol
> emu meat would become a grocery-store staple convinced thousands of Texans
> to jump into the fledgling industry.

> In 1994, just before the market crashed, one study predicted that 2.5
> million of the gangly, flightless Australian imports would be raised
> nationwide by 1998. Texas promoters boasted that half those birds would be
> Texans.

> Then the emu bubble burst.

> Within weeks, back-yard ranchers and big operators alike were stuck with
> birds they couldn't sell and feed bills of at least $100 a year per bird.

