From manufacturing to rising cost of feather shuttle cocks, Jalandhar takes a hit

Jalandhar has not only taken a hit as a manufacturing hub for feather shuttle cocks, but the availability and rising cost of the sports item has impacted the budget of every middle class parent supporting their children playing the competitive game of badminton.

Over the years, Jalandhar has become a hub of badminton training academies. There are seven to eight private academies, besides a government-aided Olympian Dipankar Bhattacharjee Badminton Academy at the Raizada Hansraj Stadium in the city.

In the last few months, the average price of a box of 12 feather shuttlecocks has gone up from Rs 1,200 since last February to Rs 2,200. The availability of premium duck/goose feathers used to make shuttles has hit the manufacturing industry, mostly based in China and Japan, and hence the end-users too.

Though Jalandhar is a sports goods manufacturing hub, shuttlecocks are no longer manufactured here. Almost all shuttle boxes available in Jalandhar market are imported from China. “While feather shuttles have gone out of range, the price of even the nylon shuttles used commonly by the beginners has shot upto Rs 2,000 for a pack of 12 and Rs 200 for a single shuttle. The Chinese companies have created a kind of monopoly here and are also trying to jack up the prices,” said Ravinder Dhir, convener, Khel Udyog Sangh.

Dheeraj Sharma of Jagdish Sports, said, “Chinese manufacturers maintain that the cost of shuttles has gone up as the younger generations no longer savour duck meat. Hence there is a shortage of feathers. This has affected the supply chain and hence the prices have spiralled. A contributing factor is that badminton has become so popular in our area and many parents are sending their children to academies for training. The training institutes allow only real feather shuttles even for practice. This has added to the demand when the supplies are already down, further adding to the problem.

He further said, “Any player who is into competitive game has to buy two-three boxes of shuttles every month.”

Though Jalandhar had around 10 to 15 factories, 100 to 150 small units manufacturing feather shuttlecocks shutdown between 2000 and 2005 when Chinese companies took over the market. “We used to manufacture high-quality shuttlecocks till two decades ago. We used to procure duck feathers from Bangladesh or West Bengal. But the sudden invasion of Chinese products brought a complete downfall. The smaller units, which had people working from home for weaving feathers into cork bases, also got completely phased out in the race. The local units could not compete with the Chinese products in terms of quality and pricing,” Sharma explained.

Ritin Khanna, secretary, the Punjab Badminton Association, said, “The availability of shuttles and sharp rise in their prices has been bothering not just parents, but even academy owners and organisers of events too. As we have several events lined up from this month onwards, our main concern has been to ensure stock of shuttle boxes so that the conduct of events is not affected.”