The Bombyx Mori Silk Farm is set on the 24 Degrees South Country Estate, near the Blyde River Canyon, Hoedspruit, Limpopo Province, South Africa.
Bombyx used to be one of two commercial silkworm farms in the country. Several attempts of silk worm farming have been made in the past, some of which where as early as the twenties, in Knysna, however they have all proved unsuccessful. The Bombyx Mori Silk Farm stopped farming the silk worms due to a number of reasons – namely insecticide drift from neighboring agriculture, import of hybrid eggs due to monopoly control by the east, poor quality of worms and low quantity and quality of silk produced. It is for this reason that we now import a superior quality silk from the east as a raw material and do all the manufacturing on the farm, using well trained rural ladies.
Silk is one of the oldest known textile fibres, and according to Chinese tradition was used as far back as the 27 century BC. The silkworm moth was originally a native of China and for about 30 centuries the gathering and harvesting of silk was a secret process known only to the Chinese. Tradition credits the 14 year old bride of the Emperor Huang Ti with the discovery of silk, when as legend has it a cocoon fell into her cup of tea.





