The meat is extremely lean and described as tasting somewhere between lamb and veal.
But many breeders of this particular livestock might not be able to stomach the thought of actually eating it.
Alpacas in Australia are predominantly bred for their fleece, but now the demand for their meat is growing very quickly.
Ian Frith breeds alpacas on his farm at Berry in southern NSW for both.
"That's the only way to exist as a farmer, is that we've got to be able to use the animal all the way through," he said.
"You use the fleece, use the genetics and then also use the meat and hides, and that way it's a sustainable commercial farming enterprise."
He says the business has only been selling alpaca meat for the last 18 months.
"We're very much in the embryo stage, we've got to crawl before we walk and run, but this year alone we've exceeded 10 tonnes of meat to the market," he said.
"By the end of this financial year we'll be well close to 20 tonnes of alpaca meat delivered to restaurants, hotels and the market."
He says he can't export yet because of the demand for the meat locally.
"We've had overseas orders but I can't fill them," he said.
"I want to make sure that we've got a sustainable market here, and that we can support it because if you don't support and you don't supply, they'll soon leave you and drop you like a hot potato."
Mr Frith says alpacas are no longer an expensive animal to buy.
"Twenty years ago when the animals first came in, yes you were looking at $20,000, $25,000, $60,000," he said.
"My stud animals, yes I've got one there insured for $250,000, a boy, and I've got others that are well up on that range, but they're breeding and my genetics.
"But these ones we buy, we breed; it's not expensive because they're not the creme de la creme, they're being bred for their confirmation and their meat."
For meat production, the Huacaya breed is preferable over the Suri alpaca.
"We find with Suris, while the meat is exactly the same, they don't carry the same amount of body of meat, because they've got a flimsier frame," he said.
"When we kill the animals we look at dressing at 58 to 59 per cent, which gives us a 40 kilo carcass and that's the Huacaya.
"We're looking at animals that will come in consistently around that dress weight of around 39 to 40 kilos, which gives us a consistency in the market so our end users know exactly what they're getting for their money.
"It's not just the consistency in the weight, but in the quality of the product."
Mr Frith says that the University of Sydney and RIDRC is into its first year of research into the viability of the alpaca market, the meat and its nutrition.
"We've got the preliminary results, but we have a confidentiality agreement until the PHD study has finished," he said.
But the alpaca meat producer says at 94 to 95 per cent fat free and because of that leanness, it's a very good meat for us.
"It's very high in iron, very high in protein, very low in cholesterol, but it can also be very unforgiving when you're cooking, because it hasn't got that fat in it," he said.
"But if you can cook kangaroo and you can cook venison, then you can cook alpaca, because the same principles apply; it's either quick or its long, there's no in between."
Some of the alpaca cuts include strip loin, rump, shoulder roll and back strap.
"The neck rosettes make the greatest osso bucco, the rack is better than any rack of lamb I've tasted, and the tenderloins are just incredible," he said.
"All the legs are smoked because of the demand in the delis and restaurants, it's the most fantastic meat, it's double hot smoked and has got a shelf life of 12 weeks."
He says every part of the alpaca carcass is used except the brain.
"But the offals all used; the heart, the kidneys, the liver."
Millpaca Alpaca Stud will be holding open days as part of the National Alpaca Week next month. To learn more about Millpaca, please visit their website at http://millpaca.com/.

Two New Zealand companies run by a father and son have been slapped with big fines after selling faked goods that cost little to produce to tourists for thousands of dollars.

Top Sky Holdings Limited was charged with 12 breaches of the Fair Trading Act, and was fined $NZ140,000 ($A112,000) in the Auckland District Court for selling high-priced souvenirs under false claims.

The Rotorua retail outlet sold Peruvian alpaca rugs as made in New Zealand from local alpaca.

The rugs were priced between $NZ4000 and $NZ8000 each, when Peruvian alpaca rugs typically retail elsewhere for between $NZ1000 and $NZ1600.
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The company's managing consultant, Haidong Chen, was charged with 28 breaches of the Fair Trading Act, and was fined $NZ24,500 for his conduct relating to both Top Sky and a second company, Kiwi Wool.

His father, Jinming Chen, also faced 18 charges and was fined $NZ10,500 in relation to Kiwi Wool. The company was charged with 18 breaches of the Fair Trading Act, and fined $NZ84,000.

The father and son made their admissions together, the Commerce Commission said.

Kiwi Wool makes and sells wool duvets to retail outlets and tour groups. These were labelled as being 100 per cent alpaca when in fact the alpaca wool content was only 20 per cent. Kiwi Wool also manufactured and sold duvets labelled as 100 per cent New Zealand merino lamb wool, when the wool content was not merino.

The cost of manufacture of the duvets was about $NZ70, but they were sold to tourists for between $NZ400 and $NZ1000.

Commerce Commission chairman Mark Berry said tourists were willing to pay significantly more for New Zealand premium wool products.

Selling items as New Zealand-made when they were not, was deliberately misleading buyers, he said.

The tourists from China, Korea and Taiwan were taken to several premises and paid significantly more for items such as alpaca rugs and merino or alpaca duvets than they were worth, as a result of misleading representations, the Commerce Commission said.

Tourists represented a valuable segment of New Zealand's economy, Berry said.

"The Commission's role is to protect the interest of consumers," he said.

The charges brought by the Commerce Commission under the Fair Trading Act followed search warrants executed on 10 premises in Rotorua and one in Auckland in August 2011.

The multi-agency searches, aided by Tourism New Zealand, involved the Commerce Commission, police, customs, immigration, the Wildlife Enforcement Group.

In sentencing on Thursday, Judge Nevin Dawson said the defendants demonstrated a large degree of wilfulness and carelessness in the misrepresentations.

The defendants' conduct undermined fair competition in the market and unfairly disadvantaged other traders, he said.

There are six further companies and five individuals facing charges as a result of the investigation who are still to be dealt with by the Rotorua courts.

Tourism is a key sector of the New Zealand economy with international tourists providing 18 per cent of the country's export earnings in 2010.

China is listed as a target market with the number of Chinese visitors last year rising 38 per cent from 2011 to 208,000.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/crackdown-over-tourist-ripoffs-in-new-zealand-20130402-2h40t.html#ixzz2PJvQfsfj