Japan fears shortage of wooden chopsticks

Tokyo: Walk into any Japanese noodle shop or restaurant and chances are high you will soon be eating with a pair of disposable wooden chopsticks from China. But not for long.

In a move that has cheered environmentalists but worried restaurant owners, China has slapped a 5 per cent tax on the chopsticks over concerns of deforestation.

The move is hitting hard at the Japanese, who consume a tremendous 25 billion sets of wooden chopsticks a year, about 200 pairs per person. Some 97 per cent come from China.

Chinese chopstick exporters have responded to the tax increase and a rise in other costs with a 30 per cent increase on prices of chopsticks exports to Japan, with a planned additional 20 per cent rise currently pending. The increase has sent Japanese restaurants scrambling to find alternative sources for chopsticks.

"We're not in an emergency situation yet, but there has been some impact," said Ichiro Fukuoka, director of Japan Chopsticks Import Association.

A pair of chopsticks that used to cost a little over 1 yen (Dh0.03) now is 1.5-1.7 yen (Dh0.050-0.056)

The rising costs of raw wood and transportation because of higher oil prices have also contributed to the rise, industry officials said.

But pretty soon, some fear Japan won't be able to able to get any chopsticks at all from China: Japanese newspapers Mainichi and Nihon Keizai reported that China is expected to stop those exports to Japan as early as 2008.

To minimise the impact, Japanese importers now buy more bamboo chopsticks and are considering new suppliers, including Vietnam, Indonesia and Russia, said Fukuoka.

Disposable chopsticks produced by domestic makers accounted for half of the market share until about 20 years ago, but were taken over by cheaper, high quality Chinese counterparts.