A staff member introduces a duvet with feather and down via live-streaming at an industrial park in Qiaoxu Township, Guigang City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nov. 26, 2024. (Xinhua/Yang Chi)

As startling as it may seem, one in every five processed duck feathers worldwide today comes from Qiaoxu, a once-obscure township in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region that has transformed into a global hub for the feather and down industry, fueled by rapid development and a thriving entrepreneurial spirit.

The feather and down industry in Qiaoxu dates back to the 1980s, when duck feathers were largely regarded as worthless by locals, until astute businessmen from coastal regions saw them as valuable raw materials for garment production.

"My grandfather used to ride his bicycle with two baskets, collecting duck feathers door to door," recalled Yu Ke, general manager of a local down and feather company. At that time, Yu said, feathers were so inexpensive that a handful of candies could be traded for a large pile of them.

As more people joined the trade of buying and selling duck feathers, Qiaoxu gradually became a trading hub for raw duck feathers by the early 1980s.

When locals realized that true profitability lay in the down -- the soft layer beneath the feathers -- they began exploring ways to separate it from the feathers, rather than merely collecting raw materials, according to Yu.

He noted that many family workshops sprang up across the township, with people collecting duck feathers by day and sorting them by night, before selling them to garment manufacturers in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces.

By the late 1990s, Qiaoxu was home to over 90 processing factories, becoming a key supplier to major garment manufacturers in China's coastal regions.

A worker uses an automatic machine to fill feather and down into a duvet at a company in Qiaoxu Township, Guigang City, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nov. 26, 2024. (Xinhua/Yang Chi)

Since 2000, many family workshops have transformed into modern enterprises by incorporating advanced washing and deep-processing equipment, enabling the production of thoroughly cleaned and disinfected products.

Today, the feather and down industry is the backbone of Qiaoxu's economy, with the town processing approximately 90,000 tonnes of such materials annually. This accounts for 28 percent of China's total production and 18 percent of the global market.

The township is now home to around 150 processing enterprises, employing over 30,000 people. In 2023, the total output value of Qiaoxu's feather and down industry reached nearly 2.3 billion yuan (about 320 million U.S. dollars), with cross-border sales exceeding 1.1 billion yuan.

Qiaoxu has rapidly expanded its feather and down industry into global markets. Around 40 percent of the township's washed feather and down raw materials are now imported from Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia, further enhancing its global supply chain.

Local enterprises have also made significant strides in exporting finished products. For instance, Yu's company was one of the pioneers, exporting down products to Japan as early as the 1990s.

"In early October, we exported 50,000 sets of down products to European and American countries, and we're now working on completing new export orders," said Yu, adding that the company's duvets and down pillows are sold across the world.