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Rising shuttlecock costs rock China's badminton scene

A surge in shuttlecock prices is sending ripples through China's badminton community, as top manufacturers implement substantial price hikes amidst soaring demand and dwindling supplies of duck and goose feathers.

In early July, renowned badminton equipment manufacturers including Yonex, Chaopai, VICTOR, and RSL implemented a fresh wave of price increases. In comparison to 2023, the prices of shuttlecocks from these prominent manufacturers have risen by an average of 20 percent to 30 percent, with certain products seeing much higher increases, surpassing 60 percent. Top-selling products are even out of stock on online platforms.

Now, many badminton players in China are finding rising prices prohibitive.

"Around two years ago, at that time, I could buy a bucket of shuttlecocks for around 130 yuan (about 18 U.S. dollars). Typically, I would purchase three or four buckets, spending roughly 300 to 400 yuan (roughly 41 to 55 U.S. dollars). However, now with 400 yuan, I can only get two buckets," said a badminton lover.

According to a report released by China's General Administration of Sport, badminton is one of the most popular sports in China, with a participating population of 250 million.

Fast growing demand for shuttlecocks plus limited supply of authentic duck and goose feathers, key raw materials for the badminton equipment, has triggered the price hikes, industrial insiders pointed out.

"The sales of a single product have witnessed a 40 percent growth this year compared to last year, with monthly sales increasing from around 600,000 units to 1,200,000 units. There are more and more people playing badminton. But duck and goose feathers are indeed cyclical products, and they are also purely natural. Therefore, there may be an imbalance between supply and demand," said Zhang Yu, deputy general manager of a badminton equipment brand in southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

Many shuttlecock makers further explained that frustrated by the low returns, numerous duck and goose farmers have opted to reduce their farming scale or switch to other industries, and that caused the shrinking supply of feathers. Data showed that from 2019 to 2023, China's duck production decreased from 4.878 billion heads to 4.218 billion heads, while the goose production declined from 634 million heads to 515 million heads.

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