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Ken Blake

wrote:

> Japan faces chopsticks crisis
>
> Justin McCurry in Tokyo
> Monday May 15, 2006
> The Guardian
>
>
> Millions of Japanese diners could soon be deprived of their favourite
> wooden chopsticks following China's decision to impose a 5% tax on the
> utensils because of concerns over deforestation.
> The move is already beginning to affect restaurants and caterers in
> Japan, which gets through 25bn pairs of disposable wooden chopsticks a
> year - or 200 pairs a person - 97% of which come from China.
>
> Chinese chopstick exporters responded to the tax increase by raising
> prices by around 30%, with another 20% increase to follow. The price
> of chopsticks has already risen from one yen a pair to more than one
> and a half yen, with producers also blaming rising transportation and
> raw material costs.

Crisis? Today a yen is worth $0.008977 US. A price increase of half a yen
is under half a penny. At 200 pair a year per person, that's under $1.
Perhaps I'm missing the point, but it's hard to see how this can be much of
an issue.

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup

--
Ken Blake
Please reply to the newsgroup