STYKKISHOLMUR (Iceland): On a remote island in Breidafjordur Bay off the west coast of Iceland, a thousand-year-old harvest takes place – the hunt for elusive eiderdown, used to make some of the world’s best duvets and quilts.

The handpicked down sells for thousands of euros per kg, catering to those looking for exclusive products. Every summer, nearly 400 Icelandic farmers comb through hollow surfaces in the rock, on the sand or in the tall grass to unearth a few handfuls of the grey feathers of this polar duck.

From May onwards, the eider comes to nest in sparsely populated marine landscapes around much of Iceland’s coast where there is seaweed to feed its ducklings.

“When there are eggs, we only take a part of the down. But when the eider has already left the nest, we take everything,” said Erla Fridriksdottir, head of King Eider, one of the country’s main exporters.

The eider, a sea duck from the subarctic oceans, leaves a trail behind consisting of a natural treasure – one of the warmest natural fibres on the planet, both light and highly insulating.

The female, with her dark brown plumage with black stripes, similar to that of a mallard but slightly larger, releases the down from her breast and lines her nest with it to insulate it during incubation.

About 60 nests are needed to produce 1kg of down. A quilt needs between 600g and 1,600g, depending on the quality chosen.

Meticulous cleaning

Worldwide, the annual harvest of eiderdown is no more than 4,000kg, three quarters of which comes from Iceland, by far the world’s largest producer, ahead of Canada and other countries bordering the Arctic.

There are five Icelandic companies exporting eiderdown, according to the Eider Farming Association, with around 15 companies involved in some capacity in its production.

On the island of Bjarneyjar, the tradition of searching for abandoned nests has been passed down for generations. The local practice is said to have started in Iceland as Vikings from Norway settled on the island at the end of the ninth century.

Since 1847, the eider has been fully protected in Iceland as hunting and picking its eggs are prohibited. But it still faces dangers as predators such as seagulls, crows, eagles, minks and foxes eat the sea ducks or their eggs.

“We feel that the ducks like to have their nests close to us, where we are staying,” said Jon Fridriksson, Erla’s brother, adding that it could be a strategy to keep predators at bay.

Once harvested, the down is dried in the open air so it does not mould. Then Fridriksdottir’s employees begin the first stage of sterilising and cleaning it in a huge oven at a temperature of 120°C for eight hours.

“When the down comes in here, it’s mostly going to be full of grass, eggshells and all kinds of things from the ocean. We put it in the oven to kill off any organisms and the high temperature also makes the grass brittle,” says Pall Jonsson, who is in charge of the machines at the workshop in Stykkisholmur.

In a second step, rotating machines remove other dirt from the down by pressing it against a thin wire mesh. As a last touch, expert hands – which no technology has been able to replace for this process thus far – do another thorough cleaning.

It takes four to five hours to clean 1kg of down by hand. Finally, the down feathers are washed with water and disinfected, again by hand, before being wrung out and dried.

RM22,000 Blankets

According to Icelandic law, eiderdown must pass strict quality controls before being sold, ensuring cleanliness, smell, colour and consistency.

“You have to be able to pick up a 40-50g package between two fingers, and if it remains intact and does not fall out, then the down is of good quality,” Asgeir Jonsson, one of the inspectors, explains.

In addition to its rarity, the production of eiderdown helps explain its high price. A simple duvet containing 800g of feathers is sold for about 640,000 Icelandic kronur (almost RM22,000).

While world-famous, eiderdown production is a drop in the bucket of the world’s total down production, estimated at 175,000 tonnes per year, according to the International Down and Feather Bureau.