US Chinatowns running short of tea, Tsingtao, stuffed pandas as supply chain snags disrupt imports
- Supply shortages have hit Chinatowns across the US especially hard because they rely on Chinese goods
- Shipping container shortages, port congestion and pandemic-driven factory slowdowns have all weighed on supply
In one of America’s best-known Chinatowns, restauranter George Chen has nearly run out of the Chinese oolong tea he serves with meals.
Despite ordering a new batch from China early in January, it had not arrived in San Francisco by late February, and he has been told only two-thirds will eventually make it across the Pacific. Normally, his broker in the central Chinese city of Wuhan takes only a week to send a shipment.
His last order of Tsingtao beer, a ubiquitous accompaniment to Chinese cuisine, has been delayed by a month too – and Chen cannot help feeling the brewery is “rationing” it among Chinese restaurants in the United States.
While an order of 36 woks will make it – at a princely sum of US$1,000 – he is still waiting on a mid-2021 order of stuffed pandas, which he sells at the restaurant, that has missed two delivery dates.
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“It’s a nightmare,” said Chen, 64, who runs the three-story China Live restaurant. “I could go on and on and on.”