From what I’m seeing online? Not really. There’s just not much of a market for alpaca wool in the U.S. And nobody here consumes alpaca meat. As mentioned in the OP, alpaca farming appears to operate like a pyramid scheme.
If there’s any money to be made at all, it’s in selling the animals you raise to suckers like the ladies at the tranch. I believe alpacas are advertised as easy to care for and maintain. They don’t require as much land, feed, water, specialized equipment and expertise as, say, cattle.
The tranchers would probably have been better off raising goats or sheep. At least there’s a market for their milk and meat. But I think I remember reading in the Kevin Gibes thread that they don’t want to slaughter animals in order to turn a profit. And raising livestock for milk is extremely hard work.
Here’s an article describing how the bottom fell out of the U.S. alpaca market several years ago, if you’re interested. TLDR is: avoid alpacas if you want to make money on a small farm.
At the peak of the U.S. alpaca frenzy, top breeding alpacas would sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. While adorable, for many Americans these critters were a seriously bad investment.
priceonomics.com