Here we go, all GN willow is grown in the uk (with the exception of Kashmir) all this willow is felled by our own felling gangs, hauled to our site in Robertsbridge where the tress are cut into rounds, glued, peeled, split, sawn, kilned and graded.
After they have been graded they are divided up into what is required by our manufacturing points around the world, those being the UK, Australia, India and South Africa.
Legend willow genuinely is extremely rare, I can go through a set of 20 Legend clefts as they have been preliminaraly graded but only get 2 or 3 of a high enough standard. If some Legend clefts get sent to India they will be made in India. Preliminary grading is never 100% accurate as we have 70-80000 clefts a year to produce and grafe (approx 300 clefts a day graded whilst completing other tasks)
We are fairly unique in that our factory in India is owned and controlled by us, there is no making under license by 3rd parties. Our managing directors from both here in tbe uk and australia spend an extensive amount of time there with them ensuring the quality of what is produced.
We never ship directly from our Indian manufacturing plant, all equipment is sent to our Robertsbridge factory for QC checks.
I cannot comment on why costs of Legends are going up, all I can say is some Legends are made here, some in India.