China Imposes 5% Tax On Disposable Chopstick Exports - AP

TOKYO - Walk into any Japanese noodle shop or restaurant and chances are you'll 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 percent 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 percent of them come from China. Chinese chopstick exporters have responded to the tax increase and a rise in other costs by slapping a 30 percent hike on chopstick prices — with a planned additional 20 percent increase pending.

The price hike has sent Japanese restaurants scrambling to find alternative sources for chopsticks, called "waribashi" in Japanese. "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 waribashi that used to cost a little over 1 yen — less than 1 cent — now goes for 1.5 to 1.7 yen. 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 even be able to get expensive chopsticks from China: Japanese newspapers Mainichi and Nihon Keizai reported that China is expected to stop waribashi exports to Japan as early as 2008.

EDIT

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&ncid=535&e=9&u=/ap/20060512/ap_on_re_as/chopstick_crisis_1

GEEEEZ :)

. . . chopstick set, box, carry with you, use for many years.

.

1) China slaps a 5% tax on, and exporters raise the cost by 30%?

2) chopstick prices rising from 1 cent to 2 cents - how awful

3) 200 pairs of chopsticks per year - they can't re-use them?

On a personal note, I went to Macua last year and though everyone used chopsticks in restaurants, at the works canteen, about 95% of people used knives and forks...

I don't like the disposable ones anyway. They are too light and are prone to splinters when you seperate them. I much prefer the nicer ones you get in upscale restaurants, painted with Chinese or animals from the Chinese zodiac. They also wash up nicely in the dishwasher.