US Chinatowns running short of tea, Tsingtao, stuffed pandas as supply chain snags disrupt imports

Name: New York’s Manhattan Chinatown still reeling from Covid-19 pandemic 2 years on
Uploaded: 2022-02-26T06:00:31.000Z
Duration: 3 min 6 s
Description: New York’s Manhattan Chinatown still reeling from Covid-19 pandemic 2 years on

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

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Business owners in America’s Chinatowns are grappling with supply shortages for Chinese imports. Photo: AP

Ralph Jenningsin San Francisco

Published: 2:00pm, 26 Feb 2022Updated: 2:26pm, 26 Feb 2022

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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New York’s Manhattan Chinatown still reeling from Covid-19 pandemic 2 years on

“It’s a nightmare,” said Chen, 64, who runs the three-story China Live restaurant. “I could go on and on and on.”

Supply shortages like those afflicting Chen’s business have hit Chinatowns across the US especially hard because they sell Chinese imports that US-based manufacturers do not produce.

Many shops and eateries have closed – some for good – since mid-2020 due to lack of customers during the coronavirus pandemic, outbreaks of anti-Asian violence last year, and growing homelessness and accompanying crime.

There are about 50 Chinatowns in the US, from the larger city within a city districts of New York and San Francisco to those covering just a few blocks in the likes of Portland, Oregon. Some date back to the 1800s. Larger, older ones double as tourist magnets and shopping and event hubs for Chinese immigrants.