Every summer, around 400 hunters scour a small,
remote island in Iceland’s Breizafjörzur Bay in search of an unusual
treasure – the world’s most expensive feathers
The hunt for the world’s most precious feathers has been held almost
every year for over a millennia. People have known that Eiderdown, the
feathers of the Eider polar duck, is one of the warmest natural fibers
on the planet for a really long time, and nowadays they use it to make
the best duvets and quilts money can buy. A kilogram of Eiderdown sells
for thousands of dollars, as the feathers are only used to make luxury
products. Eider ducks shed the precious down from their breast and uses
to line their nests to insulate them during hatching. It’s these nests
that the hunters are after during their annual Eiderdown hunt.
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“When we have eggs, we take only part of the down, and when Eider is
already out of the nest, we take everything,” Erla Fridriksdottir, head
of King Eider, one of the country’s main exporters, told AFP.
Not only is eiderdown both light and highly insulating, but it’s also
extremely scarce, with annual global yield at less than four tons, three
quarters of which comes from Iceland. Eiderdown hunters have to find
about 60 duck nests on average, to gather one kilogram of down. The down
also has to pass rigorous quality checks in order to make the cut, which
also impacts the price. |
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“You have to be able to pick up a 40-50 gram package between two fingers
and if it remains intact and does not fall out, then the down is of good
quality,” one eiderdown inspector said.
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Interestingly, Eiderdown is one of the few downs that is actively hunted
and harvested, the others being a byproduct of the food industry. This
makes it a favorite of nature and animal lovers, but few can actually
afford Eiderdown products, as a duvet containing 800 grams of feathers
costs over $5,000. |