Why is eiderdown so expensive?

/ Life at Lækur
Eider ducks, drakes and ducklings on the pond at Lækur in summer, with the sea and Dýrafjörður behind

Because it cannot be made faster.

Nothing here is bred, caged or plucked. The eider hens come to Lækur by themselves every spring, and it is the same hens that come back, year after year, to nest on the same spot, because they feel safe. That safety is the whole business. A colony only stays where the birds are left in peace, so protecting it is the real work.

Protecting the colony

We fence out the fox. This autumn we finished a new watch hut above the main colony, and through the nesting season someone is on watch, day and night.

The eider colony at Lækur from the air – the estuary, the beach and Dýrafjörður
The colony at Lækur, where the ducks nest between the river mouth and the sea.
A fox fence along the eider colony at Lækur in spring, with snow-capped mountains behind
The new watch hut above the eider colony at Lækur, Dýrafjörður, finished October 2026
Sunset over Dýrafjörður through the grass, seen from the watch post at Lækur
The fox fence in spring, the new watch hut (finished October 2026) and light after midnight, seen from the watch.

Gathering what they leave behind

We gather the down the birds leave behind, by hand, nest by nest, together with family and friends. It takes the down of about sixty nests to make one kilo of cleaned down, and every nest is visited on foot.

Two children sitting on bags of gathered eiderdown in a trailer at Lækur
The down gathering team at Lækur waving in front of the mountain in Dýrafjörður

Drying, cleaning and washing

Back at the farm the down is dried on racks. If it comes in wet, it goes first on a heated drying table, where it is turned by hand, because wet down has to dry quickly. Up to 70 per cent of the weight of what is gathered is not down at all – it is grass, seaweed, twigs, bits of shell and larger feathers. Once the down is dry we give it a first clean, by hand. After that it is heated to about 120 °C, which sterilises it; a machine takes out dirt and grass, and a second machine removes most of the feathers; and last of all it is cleaned by hand, because some feathers and bits of dirt always remain. Finally our seamstress washes it in water before it goes into a duvet.

Turning eiderdown by hand on the heated drying table at Lækur
Eiderdown drying on racks in the drying loft at Lækur

Only about 3 tonnes in the whole world

All of this adds up to very little: only about 3 tonnes of eiderdown are produced in the whole world each year, most of it in Iceland.

Certified, and sewn in Iceland

Our seamstress sews each duvet, one at a time. As the down goes into the duvet, a sworn, state-licensed down assessor inspects and weighs it, seals the duvet and issues the certificate for that duvet.

Official Icelandic eiderdown quality certificate (Quality Certificate, Act no. 52/2005) attached to one of our duvets. The assessor’s signature and stamp number are blurred.
The first Zoffi eiderdown duvet laid out on a bed

So the price of an eiderdown duvet is really the price of patience: protecting the birds so that they keep coming back. The full breakdown, with prices, is in our guide: How much does an eiderdown duvet cost – and why? Ready to choose one? See our duvets.