Japan will have to adjust its eating habits with the implementation of a 50% price increase on disposable chopsticks imposed by Chinese suppliers before exports cease altogether, a media report said on Tuesday.
In March, China’s government imposed a ban on the disposable eating utensils as a measure to protect forests. Ninety percent of the 25-billion pairs of wooden chopsticks Japan uses each year are imported from China, according to the Mainichi Shimbun.
Until the 1980s, chopsticks were sourced from the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido and the ancient capital of Nara for 20 yen ($0.18) per pair. But China quickly dominated the market by offering a pair for 1 to 2 yen.
In the fierce price war, Japanese chopstick producers declined from nearly 70 companies to eight while their employees declined from 1 900 to only 40, reported the daily.
One Japanese restaurant franchise, Marche Co, which used to go through 15-million pairs of disposable chopsticks every year at its 760 branches nationwide, replaced them with plastic ones in February.
The company has also introduced a credit system that gives a 50-yen discount each time customers bring their own chopsticks and a 500-yen coupon if they bring their own sticks 10 times.
However, convenience stores that now provide disposable chopsticks for free are expected to pass on the new expense to customers. — Sapa-dpa