Farming and Raw Material Production
| Feather Production and Feather Processing |
Geese are part and parcel of the Hungarian countryside, being widespread and popular domestic animals. Feather-filled covers were used to keep out the cold by Roman legians on the territory that was later to become Hungary. The flood-plain green meadows surrounding unregulated rivers provided particularly favourable conditions for goose farming. Gaose farming and feather production look back on a history of several centuries. Taking advantage of moulting (shedding), a wellgrown goose can provide up to 250 300 gramm of down feather a year. So-called industrial by-product feather, plucked from a butchered bird, is a valuable product alangside its meat and liver, which tagether constitute the value of the goose.Few people are aware that Hungary is the second largest exporter of feather in the world. Feather exports amount to an annual 4,000 tonnes, USD 40-50 million of the country's foreign trade turnover comes from feather export revenues, and feather accounts for over 13% of the export value of the country's total poultry products. The high quality of this valuable product may be ensured only by strict observance of breeding, farming and technological regulations. Animal protection and quality feather production were regulated in Hungary as early as 1952 by a strict national standard (MSZ - Quality Standard). 
Feather, a special agricultural product, is obteined in the course of animal husbandry or originates as a by-product of the poultry processing industry. Feather processing as an industrial activity constitutes a separate branch within poultry processing.Some goose processing plants - e.g. Kiskunhalasi Baromfifeldolgoz¢ Rt. (Kiskunhalas Poultry Processing Ltd.), ConAvis Rt. T"r"kszentmikl¢s (ConAvis Ltd., Torokszentmiklos), Szentes GOLD M Kft. - process derived industrial feather only to the condition necessary for transportation. Others operating their own feather processing plants - e.g. Zagyvar‚kasi Baromfi Kft. (Zagyvarekas Poultry Ltd.), FOTK Rt., S Ga Foods Rt. - also buy feather on a commercial basis and carry out partial or complete feather processing. Finally, there are plants not engaged in poultry breeding or farming, but concentrating exclusively on partial or complete feather processing. These accordingly produce either loose and raw or processed and hygienic feather ready for filling e.g. R dai Kft., Natura Kft., FAN Hortob gy Kft., Kunf‚der Kft.- or feather-filled bedding, so-called ready-made feather products (Holle, Naturtex, Hungaria, Peter's Paplan [Peter's Duvet], Lanotte Kft.). Hungarian feather is synonymous with the highest quality all over the world. This quality is protected by a trademark, which enjoys protection in most European countries (within the Madrid Union) and the USA. The intellectual base of quality feather production is GATE L£dteny‚szt‚si Kutat¢ Allom sa (Goose Breeding Research Station at GATE), hosting among other things the Toll Laborat¢rium (Feather Laboratory) accredited by the International Feather Association. |
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