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Shortage of duck feathers has put shuttlecock manufacturing hubs in jeopardy

Sutanuka Ghosal, ET Bureau Dec 28, 2012, 04.45AM IST

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Tags: West Bengal Koolie Gajole Badminton

ultramarine

the middle

The Game

Sports

sitting ducks

shuttlecock

| |

Kolkata

Khan Shuttlecock Makers

Indian Realty Inc

DB Pandit & Co

Balurghat

Here's a manufacturing hub sitting ducks, thanks to Indian Realty Inc's ardent march to the hinterlands. Acute shortage of duck feathers has made prices shoot up over 100% putting shuttlecock manufacturing hubs in jeopardy, like the one in Uluberia in Howrah district of West Bengal. The population of duck - one of the most common species of birds found in the Indian countryside - is dwindling rapidly as waterbodies get filled to promote real estate.
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Uluberia, located nearly 40 km from downtown Kolkata, houses some 80-odd shuttlecock manufacturing units. The units provide employment to some 5,000 people directly and indirectly. Rough estimates peg the industry size at Rs 150-200 crore. "In last three months the price of duck feathers has doubled which is taking a toll on our margins. While three months ago price of 1,000 feathers was Rs 750, it is now Rs 1,500 per 1,000 feathers. However, we cannot jack up prices in such a manner," says Basudeb Khan, owner of Khan Shuttlecock Makers. Prices Soar Prices of shuttlecocks have already gone up this winter when demand increases as a large section of people prefer sweating it out on the badminton courts. A pack of 12 shuttlecocks, which was priced at Rs 300 three months back, now costs Rs 400. The major shuttlecock brands that are churned out of Uluberia are Skylark, Parrot Fly, Albatross and Adventures. Even prices of Japanese sporting equipment manufacturer Yonex Co's shuttlecocks, produced in China, have gone up over the last few months. Sekhar Chandra Biswas, secretary, West Bengal Badminton Association, says the price of Yonex shuttlecocks has gone up to Rs 900 for a pack of 12 from Rs 600 a few months ago.

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http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-12-28/news/36036532_1_shuttlecocks-d... 7/8/2013

Shortage of duck feathers has put shuttlecock manufacturing hubs in jeopardy - Economic... Page 2 of 3

For practice, generally players use local brands while they use Yonex shuttlecocks for badminton matches as they are of international standards. "Non-availability of duck feathers is a matter of concern to the shuttlecock industry as a whole," he says. Biswas added that badminton players in India only play with shuttlecocks that are made from duck feathers. "Synthetic shuttlecocks are not used because flight is much better in duck feather shuttlecock, whether made in India or abroad." Old Industry Shuttlecock is an old industry of Bengal. Production of shuttlecocks in Uluberia started way back in the 1920s by one late Ganendranath Bose. He, along with some of the local youths, joined hands and their products were then supplied to the clubs in Calcutta. In those days badminton was played mostly by the British in the clubs of Calcutta. The game was not popular among Indians. However, over the years, the business of shuttlecocks slowly grew as more and more Indians started playing the game. Jalandhar in Punjab too houses a shuttlecock hub, buried inside a larger sports goods cluster producing a wide range of sports goods. "Jalandhar now houses only a dozen shuttlecock makers and Uluberia has emerged as the major centre," says Khan. There are about eight feather merchants in the Uluberia cluster. They procure duck feathers from places near India-Bangladesh border mainly from places like Balurghat and Gangarampur (south Dinajpur), Koolie and Kandi (Murshidabad), Gajole (Malda) and Lohapur in Birbhum district. Some duck feathers are also procured from Arambagh in Hooghly.
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Quite a good number of feathers are also smuggled through Bangladesh. "We cannot use synthetic products for our shuttlecocks. So we have to depend on duck feathers only," says S Pandit, partner of the 60-year-old DB Pandit & Co that produces shuttlecocks under the brand name Skylark. Quality Matters White duck wing feathers are used for best quality shuttlecocks whereas white and black wing duck feathers and some times hen's feathers are used in poorer qualities. Geese wing feathers are also used for making shuttlecocks. Feathers are sorted quality wise and graded from 1 to 6 (inferior qualities being grades 4 to 6). They are then washed in detergent for up to an hour then they are treated with ultramarine blue or optical whitener. When dry, the feathers are trimmed to 3 inches in length and are rounded on top with a scissors. The finest shuttlecocks are exported to the Middle East and Sri Lanka. Dr Dibyendu Kumar Dey, chief executive officer, Globion India, a poultry vaccine maker, puts the crisis in perspective. "Duck feathers largely used to come from the Bengal countryside. But dwindling of waterbodies has affected duck rearing. A duckery needs a dedicated pond but there are hardly such waterbodies these days," he says. The idea of a duckery doesn't have too many takers since the meat is not lucrative enough to justify the cost involved. "Broiler chicken is easier to breed and price of duck meat is equal to broiler. Hence farmers do not find this as an economic proposition," says Amit Saraogi, deputy chairman, CLFMA, the apex body of livestock industry in India.
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Readers' opinions (5)

Sort by: Newest | Oldest BharatNJ (MH) 28 Dec, 2012 11:52 PM Innocent Birds falling prey to never-ending-needs of Human being Varghese (mumbai) 28 Dec, 2012 07:21 PM

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