Sign of the Times: US Exporting Chopsticks to China
Tweet
More than 60 billion sets of chopsticks are produced every year in China, so you’d have thought they would be making enough.
But a chopstick shortage is growing in the Far East, prompting a U.S. company in Georgia to start exporting millions to the country.
Georgia Chopsticks is producing an incredible two million sets of the utensils every day, reported the Daily Telegraph.
The problem exists in part because of a shortage of wood in China – and poplar and sweet gum trees in Georgia are ideal for chopsticks.
But unlike the majority of chopsticks you might see at Chinese restaurants, these ones will be marked: ‘Made in USA’.
Jae Lee is a Korean-American who started the business in Americus, Georgia – a town hit with 12 per cent unemployment.
The firm is operating 24/7 to keep up with huge demand and wants to export 10 million pairs a day by the end of the year.
‘When I opened this business the reaction from my friends and family was: “Are you crazy? Making chopsticks here?”’ he told the Daily Telegraph.
The chopsticks manufactured by Georgia Chopsticks can be made at extremely low cost and are on sale in supermarkets in China.
‘I thought what everyone else thinks,’ worker Susan White said.
‘Everywhere you see in America it says “Made (in) China” and you wonder if in China they ever see “Made in America”,’ she told the Daily Telegraph.
 |
|