BWF says shuttlecock scarcity not a disaster but, urges producers to repair provide chain

Badminton World Federation (BWF) Secretary-General Thomas Lund mentioned the continuing shuttlecock scarcity has not but reached a “crisis level”, however burdened that producers should resolve provide chain points and speed up the roll-out of superior artificial choices for gamers worldwide.

Prices of imported feather shuttles have greater than doubled up to now 12 months attributable to uncooked materials crunch in China. A current report in French newspaper L’Equipe attributed the scarcity to altering meals habits in China, with desire shifting to pork over duck and goose meat and a worldwide rise in badminton’s reputation.

“We are aware of the global supply chain challenges and subsequent increases in feathered shuttlecock prices impacting badminton communities around the world,” Lund mentioned in an e-mail interview to PTI.

“And while we are naturally concerned by this barrier, in our dialogue with the large-scale manufacturers and their assessment of the situation, we don’t believe this is at a crisis level yet,” he added.

The scarcity has already prompted India’s prime stakeholders to confess that the game can not rely solely on goose and duck feathers, with nationwide chief coach Pullela Gopichand sounding the alarm.

BWF reiterated its long-term dedication to synthetics however mentioned the onus was on producers to type out the provision chain difficulty.

“The Badminton World Federation (BWF) is 100 percent committed to investing in and developing synthetic shuttlecocks for future sustainability of the sport and to ensure long-term accessibility for continued generations of players. We have been committed to this project for over the last 10 years,” Lund mentioned.

“….in saying this, BWF is not a shuttlecock manufacturer itself, and therefore the onus must still be on the shuttlecock producers to address these supply chain challenges and to also fast-track more advanced synthetic options,” he mentioned.

To handle sustainability and provide considerations, BWF has been experimenting with artificial shuttlecocks for fairly a while.

“Our testing and trialling programmes for production and introduction of competition and social use synthetic shuttlecocks in collaboration with the manufacturers remains in place and is firmly part of our sustainability strategies for the future,” Lund mentioned.

“This is an ongoing course of… a number of producers have already gone to market with their social use artificial shuttlecocks, and the merchandise have been effectively acquired. More work is being achieved by the BWF and producers on competition-approved shuttlecocks.

“Collectively we continue to use the qualitative and quantitative feedback from previous competition testing windows to guide the process in making the necessary improvements to all future synthetic shuttlecock production.”

Lund assured that the world physique is intently monitoring the state of affairs.

“We remain in regular contact with top global manufacturers and will continue to update the Member Associations and the badminton community on any new breakthroughs.”