How Chinese's love for pork is threatening badminton in France

Indian Express

4 days ago

France's badminton association should be very happy with the recent boom in the shuttle sport in their country but they are sweating over an unexpected problem: rising costs of the shuttlecock due to China's increased consumption of pork.
The hike in prices of goose and duck feathers are the key factor as they are used in feather shuttlecocks, still the preferred choice compared to any synthetic alternatives.
But what's China's culinary choice of pork got to do with it? It's a classic case of interconnectedness of supply chains and its disruptive effect in food production.
The declining pork prices in China have driven up consumer demand for the delicacy. This then makes fewer farmers keen to raise ducks and geese, which in turn makes their feathers – and hence the shuttlecocks – more expensive. China remains the main producer of feather shuttlecocks.
'The clubs talk to me about it every day. We're taking the full brunt of it, but we don't have control over the prices,' Franck Laurent, the new president of the French Badminton Association told the sports newspaper L'Equipe.
'It's colossal. Over ten years, it's increased almost 100%. Boxes that we used to pay 13-14 euros for are now at 24-25 or more ,' Dimitri Vaginet, president of the Volant Bisontin, told L'Equipe. ' And it's not over. Before, we had a raise once a year, now it's almost every three or five months.' L'Equipe reports that on average, a French club uses nearly 600 shafts of 12 shuttlecocks per year. Each shuttlecock requires sixteen goose feathers – preferred because they are the strongest – or duck feathers. France is seeing a boom in popularity of badminton of late.
It's not just a French problem of course, back in China too the same problem has been reported. people.cn quoted the owner of six training centres in Beijing last month. 'We moved as quickly as we could to prepare the money and grab all the supplies we could get our hands on,' said Li Taxi, who runs the company Poyan Sports' umbrella.
'Each tube of midrange shuttlecocks costs 70 to 80 yuan ($9.70 to $11.10). With her players training up to 18 hours a week — many of them play six hours a day on weekends — the costs pile up quickly. We spend 100,000 to 200,000 yuan out of our own pocket every year to support the competitive classes (of players), and about 80 percent of that goes to shuttlecocks,' she told people.cn.
Badminton is China's most popular sport, with a mindboggling 250 million recreational players, according to the 2023 national sports participation survey released by the General Administration of Sport of China. 'The supplier explains to us that there are fewer resources and that the priority for supply is directed towards Asia,' Dimitri Vaginet said.