Hungarian Goose down worldwide supply issues.
Polish Goose down is fast becoming the most trust worthy down available. Polish Goose down will be the go to down moving forward taking over from Hungarian Goose downs due to Hungarian Goose down quality becoming a low or poor quality down supply.
Big problems are coming with Hungarian Goose down supply. For far too long it has been perceived to be one of the best goose downs available. It never was or never has been. Unfortunately consumers gravitate to Hungarian Goose down because it is most commonly known or mentioned.
Most manufacturers here in Australia do not have Hungarian Goose down, most rely on a supply from China which is rebranded as Hungarian Goose down when it is actually Chinese Goose down.
Most Hungarian supply from Europe is also now compromised. With huge demands from China for duck and goose meat the quality of down is much worse. See the Chinese like sweeter meat, younger bred geese have a sweeter taste. What Hungarian farms are doing therefore is to bread the geese for only 5-6 weeks. Geese at this age dont have enough time to create large clusters. They have small downs, this means the fill power is much lower also. Most claim a 650 to 750 fill power, this is just simply untrue. The quality is now so low it is between 500 to 550 fill power.
What they are also doing in Hungary is adding recycled down into the new downs. This is most definitely frowned upon in the industry. It is most definitely not what we will ever supply in our product range.
They also use alot of neck feather and keep most of the fibre. Neck feather is very small and narrow, its no good in down proof cotton, it not only finds its way our from the stitching but also out of the fabric itself. The fibre content adds no benefit to the quilt or pillow, it has no thermal capacity, it is essentially waste. We do not want to supply quilts and pillows with 5-10% fibre waste.
Reputable processing facilities in Europe no longer wish to deal with Hungarian farmers for these reasons.
We can still obtain a supply but due to the time it takes to process the downs to remove the fibre means the downs become very expensive. To gain certification from Downpass or RDS is very, very expensive which also adds to the cost.
Obtaining Class 1 or even Class 2 quality in Hungarian Goose down is no longer possible, again this is due to the supply chain adding in second hand downs and using too much fibre.
The Hungarian Goose down supply has a bad name in Europe, reputable processing suppliers all say the same thing, do not buy Hungarian Goose down anymore.
Luckily we have about 3-6 months supply already purchased and arrived 3 months ago, after this it appears we will no longer be able to sell Hungarian Goose down quilts and pillows.
We still have limited supply of the 90% Hungarian Goose down and reasonable supply of the 95% Hungarian Mother Goose down.
We are always looking for the best quality European downs, sourced ethically with the appropriate certifications.
We are in consultation with 2 Polish Goose down suppliers, one can supply us with a 700 fill power White Polish Goose down and a higher quality Silver Polish Goose down 750 fill power. Another supplier also has what I would say is the best Goose down I have ever seen, we hope to have a supply of these downs around May-June next year. 900 fill power and its has no fibre content at all, it is hand selected so it will come at a price, but if you want the best.
Finally my recommendation now is and always has been get the Muskovy Duck down (its way better than Hungarian and its cheaper) or go with our Polish Goose down.
