The rise in the price of badminton shuttlecocks in China is reportedly due to an unexpected cause: falling pork prices.
One of the most popular models of shuttlecocks from Japanese brand Yonex, the AS02, was selling for 149 yuan ($20.5) for a pack of 12 on Friday, up 24 percent from a month ago, according to price tracking charts on Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao.
According to Shanghai newspaper The Paper, China's major shuttlecock manufacturers, including Yonex, Double Happiness, Linmei and Victor Sports, have all announced price increases of more than 20% in the past few weeks.
And most people blamed the price hike on “raw materials.”
“The price of low-end feathers has tripled, while the price of mid- to high-end feathers has at least doubled,” Li Yang, owner of a shuttlecock factory in Anhui province, was quoted as saying by Shanghai's Liberation Daily.
Li added that goose and duck feathers are usually used to make shuttlecocks.
Prices for low-end shuttlecocks, at about 2 yuan (28 cents) each, remained unchanged from last month, according to Taobao sales data.
Liu Zengjin, a researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology Information, told Liberation Daily last week that changes in China's meat industry were contributing to the rise in shuttlecock prices.
Liu said falling pork prices have increased demand for pork, which in turn has reduced demand for ducks and geese, leaving fewer feathers available for shuttlecock production.
China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said earlier this month that pork prices in the first half of 2024 fell 2.7% year-on-year.
However, the ministry reported that prices have recovered slightly over the past few weeks, with the average price of pork in China being 28.9 yuan (US$3.98) per kilogram in the second week of July, up 1.2 percent from the previous week and 24.2 percent from the same period last year.
The trend has also caught the attention of Chinese badminton enthusiasts, who have begun voicing their dissatisfaction on social media.
This affects how I teach my students because the quality control of these cheap shuttlecocks is not as good and consistent.
The topic “Badminton has become an out-of-reach sport for people earning 20,000 yuan a month” has been trending on the Chinese social media platform Weibo for about two weeks.
The topic had been read by more than 4 million users on the platform as of Friday.
“It's almost become a rich person's sport,” one user wrote on Weibo.
Shanghai-based iResearch Consulting Group announced that in 2022, badminton is one of the most widely played sports in China, with more than 30% of young people considering badminton one of the top three most played sports.
“The most direct impact is that shuttlecocks at badminton clubs have changed from big brands like Yonex and Chaopai to second-tier or no-name brands,” said Wei Zheng, a Beijing-based badminton coach.
“This affects the way we teach students because the quality control of these cheap shuttlecocks is not as good and consistent so it affects the way they play when they are beginners.
“Also, this increase will ultimately increase coaching costs and billings.”
