- Disposable chopsticks are common everyday implements used in restaurants and for eating takeaway lunches bought at convenience stores and supermarkets, and are generally made from white birch or bamboo and imported from China. According to research by the Japanese Forestry Agency, the domestic supply of disposable chopsticks in 2000 came to around 25.155 billion pairs, of which around 24.230 billion pairs (over 96% of the total) were imported. Annual per capita consumption is over 200 pairs. In 1990, around 45% was produced domestically, but since then domestic makers' share has steadily fallen until in 2000 domestic products accounted for less than 4%.
- This was due to the huge price gap (imports cost around one third of domestic products). According to one Japanese importer, "The production technology of Chinese plants has improved, so there is no difference in quality". According to dealers, the price of disposable chopsticks has fallen to around half what it was 10 years ago.
- As well as the increase in cheap imports, growing price-cutting competition among businesses such as gyudon ("beef rice bowl") chains is feeding growing demands from users for further cost reductions.
- White birch disposable chopsticks used to be widely imported from Russia. Russian imports have now completely disappeared, however, and growing Chinese imports have dominated the market in recent years. Imports of Chinese-made disposable chopsticks between 1988 and 2001 were as follows:
| 1988 |
5,613,360(1,000 pairs) |
| 1990 |
7,261,276 |
| 1992 |
12,223,571 |
| 1994 |
17,884,962 |
| 1996 |
21,930,466 |
| 1998 |
22,226,676 |
| 2000 |
23,664,505 |
| 2001 |
23,628,869 |
- Imports of disposable chopsticks in 2001 broke down as follows:
|
Quantity
(1,000 pairs)
|
(Share) |
Value
(¥1,000)
|
(Share) |
| China |
23,628,869 |
(98.3%) |
13,825,652 |
(98.3%) |
| Indonesia |
296,755 |
|
168,081 |
|
| Chile |
59,280 |
|
46,763 |
|
| Pakistan |
26,000 |
|
11,040 |
|
| Thailand |
6,195 |
|
3,638 |
|
| Vietnam |
5,527 |
|
3,080 |
|
| South Korea |
5,560 |
|
2,936 |
|
| Other |
4,482 |
|
5,767 |
|
| Total |
24,032,668 |
|
14,066,962 |
|
"Others" include Hong Kong, the United States, Taiwan and the Czech
Republic.
Source: Japan Trade Monthly
- Japan exports absolutely no disposable chopsticks.
- The number of domestic disposable chopstick makers is falling sharply due to bankruptcies and closures, and remaining makers are shifting to the production of high-end products so as not to compete directly with cheap imports. As the situation stands at present, domestic makers would not be able to meet demand even if imports were to fall, forcing Japan to depend on imports.
- Bamboo disposable chopsticks retail at around ¥350 for 100 pairs. Being thus both cheap as well superior in feel, they are popular with restaurateurs and others in the food service industry.
- However, the appearance of articles in the popular weeklies describing the purported risks of the use of fungicides and bleaching agents in Chinese-made disposable chopsticks has generated increasing concern. The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) provisionally determined the permissible limits on such substances dissolving out from chopsticks, and has notified prefectures and quarantine stations to strengthen monitoring. If these provisional limits are exceeded, measures may be taken such as requesting businesses to voluntarily withdraw products from sale. According to inspections by quarantine stations of Chinese-made disposable chopsticks, which account for the bulk of imports, sulfur dioxide (a component of bleaching agent) was detected in seven out of 32 cases. Three types of tests were also made for fungicides, and none detected out of 74 cases.
- Use of fungicides and bleaching agents as food additives is permitted in some cases, such as fungicides in citrus fruits and decolorants in kanpyo (dried gourd strips), and the quantities detected in disposable chopsticks are all below the international standard Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) and have no impact on the human body. The provisional limits established by the MHLW are set at one third of the ADI assuming the use of chopsticks for three meals a day.
- There is considerable support for establishing statutory standards rather than provisional limits on the use of fungicide and bleaching agents in disposable chopsticks. A bamboo disposable chopstick plants in China stresses that their chopsticks are safe as they avoid using fungicides by keeping down the water content of bamboo to prevent mold, and by sulfur dioxide fumigation to kill insects and decolorize.
- Importers of disposable chopstick imports from China face a number of problems, including a) difficulty procuring good-quality materials due to dwindling raw timber supplies, b) the risk of having to sell at below-cost prices due to falling prices, and c) rising awareness of maintenance of the international trade system with China's accession to the WTO.
- Although China too is tightening felling regulations, deforestation continues due to activities such as expressway construction. The price of raw timber is thus rising, and bankruptcies are starting to occur among disposable chopstick makers who are unable to adapt. For example, it takes around 20 years for white birch to grow to a thickness of 25~30cm. Large-scale forestation projects are therefore essential to ensuring supplies of raw timber.
- In 2002, price rises were requested by the Chinese industry on two occasions. However, there is no way that Japanese firms can accede to such requests in the present climate.
- In order to examine and discuss these various problems with the Chinese disposable chopstick industry, 17 firms accounting for 70% share of the Japanese disposable chopstick industry established the Japan Chopsticks Import Society on August 9, 2002. This association has been in engaged with negotiations with the industry in China since prior to this organization's establishment with the aim of holding regular biannual talks with organizations such as the China Foodstuffs Animal By-Products Imp. & Exp. Company and the China Wooden Disposable Chopstick Export Cooperation Association.
- Disposable chopsticks used to be singled out as an example of wasteful use of resources. In Japan, however, they are made from the cropped ends left over after cutting materials such as housing materials from logs. Recycling activities are also gradually spreading, with dealers in Japan now beginning to cooperate with manufacturers in collecting and recycling used disposable chopsticks to make paper.
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