Top Biz News
Feather and down industry enjoys new surge in orders
(China Daily/Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-12-14 08:03
The Chinese feather and down industry has watched prices rebound to early-2008 levels after hitting a five-year low in the global economic downturn.
"The drastic price plunge devalued my stocks of 90,000 tons by 100,000 yuan ($14,646.22) in a week at the worst time this year," said Li Fangyi, a duck and goose feather and down supplier in Wuwei county in East China's Anhui province.
The county, which produces 70 percent of China's feather and down products, earns more than 1 billion yuan from raising poultry and processing feathers every year.
Li's factory purchases raw feathers and down from local farmers.
His main client is Wanlida Co, a big Chinese feather and down products manufacturer.
Li, 39, said he lost 7 million yuan during the business recession in the world market.
Bankruptcy of upstream garment makers and canceled orders forced Wanlida to cut production and close its factory in Xiaoshan in East China's Zhejiang province.
Wanlida's major client, US-based Pacific Coast Feather Co, abruptly canceled a 120 million yuan order placed in August.
"The losses were almost my life savings. I started door-to-door feather collection at the age of 12. When the price fell to a five-year low in the first half of this year, I thought I could only start all over again from the bottom," Li said.
Luckily, prices started to climb in the third quarter, and Li recently received several new orders for 250 tons of feather and down products from clients.
"The county government has exempted feather businesses from a series of taxes and fees, and helped us obtain low-interest loans in order to seize the chance for an industry revival," he said.
He is optimistic about the future of his business, saying he believes the recovery will lead to a boom that could last for at least three years.
"There is a fixed demand for feather and down products in the world market. People in Western countries, in particular, like feather and down quilts and clothes," Li said.
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China produces 80 percent of the world's supply of down and feathers, of which 90 percent is from ducks and 10 percent from geese, insiders said.
Industry sales hit $1.88 billion last year, according to data from the China Feather and Down Industrial Association.
The data also suggested the industrial sales value of leather, fur, feather and related products increased 15.36 percent year-on-year in October, and 8.41 percent in the January to October period.
The sales ratio stood at 96.87 percent in October, down 0.79 percent from the same month last year.
