‘China builds bridges,US makes chopsticks to the Chinese’

Dramatic twist of trade relations between US and China:

US: “Made in China” is something you see on a lot of things for sale in America. But a company in Georgia has decided to turn the tables. It’s making and exporting chopsticks to the Chinese while China is building bridges elsewhere.

We’re all accustomed to seeing the label Made in China on everything from cameras to T-shirts to toys.

But a company in Georgia is turning the tables, making something quintessentially Chinese and sending it back to China.

In a mostly vacant industrial park in the small city of Americus, a new company is manufacturing, of all things, chopsticks for export to China.

On the factory floor of Georgia Chopsticks, a worker watches as a machine stamps out the disposable eating utensils. Company president Jae Lee says business is good.

“Right now, like, we are making about two million pairs of chopsticks per day. But like, we are increasing. End of this year, we’ll produce 10 million per day.

Lee says the global market for chopsticks is huge. About one-third of the world’s population uses them. Most chopsticks are made in China which turns out 63 billion pairs annually. But they’re running short of wood. Wood is something that central Georgia has plenty of. Sweet gum and poplars grow like weeds.

It turns out, these trees make perfect chopsticks - their wood is pliable, straight and has a nice, light color.

Besides wood, Americus has something else in abundance: People. Once a manufacturing center, the city lost those jobs in the 1970s when companies relocated overseas. Now, Jae Lee is hiring.

“When I checked, like Americus, they have like a 12 percent unemployment rate. In China, everybody believe like, you know, labor cost is cheap. But I believe, like, our quality is much better in the U.S.

When Georgia Chopsticks opened at the end of last year, it received 450 job applications in just two weeks.

Today, 57 people are employed at the factory, and Lee hopes to hire a hundred more workers by the end of the year.

Susan White just started working at Georgia Chopsticks. She thinks it’s great to turn the tables and make something that’s sold in China. Tuesday, MSM