It's definitely the Christmas season. Santa yesterday, now a reader points me to this story about nutcrackers:
Low-cost imports of nutcrackers pose a risk to the age-old woodcraft of eastern Germany's Erzgebirge region, famous for its Christmas ornaments. The Chinese-made replicas may increasingly look like the real thing -- but don't try cracking a nut with them, warns Germany's chief woodcarver.
The German nutcracker -- the bearded, wood-carved soldier who stands to attention in households around the world at Christmas waiting to bite the shells off walnuts -- faces growing competition from cheap Chinese copies that are threatening eastern Germany's centuries-old woodcraft tradition, the industry's leader has warned.
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Few other manufacturers in Germany dare to compete with the delicately carved and painted Erzgebirge products. But Chinese-made replicas have been appearing on Christmas market stalls in recent years at a fraction of the price, and they're getting so good that the untrained eye can't tell the difference. Dieter Uhlmann can, however. He's the chairman of the Association of Erzgebirge Craftspeople and Toy Manufacturers.
"Often you'll find Chinese nutcrackers can't actually crack nuts, they'll fall apart if you try," Uhlmann told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "I know most people just use nutcrackers for decoration but they should be able to do their job. It's hard to tell the difference between Erzgebirge and Chinese-made with smaller products, but it's quite easy with the bigger, more complex ones because they don't work as well."
Four Times Cheaper
At a Christmas market along West Berlin's Kurfürstendamm boulevard this week, one stall was selling imported pyramids for around €30 -- about a quarter of the price of an Erzgebirge pyramid. The figures were a little more crudely carved and painted and were covered in an unappealing shiny varnish -- but at a distance of a few meters, it was hard to tell the difference.
Uhlmann said imported replicas are squeezing sales of Erzgebirge products which have been falling gradually since 2002 and are set to reach some €50 million ($73 million) this year. The industry consists of some 300 small firms, many of them family-run or one-person workshops.
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Uhlmann declined to give a forecast for business this year but said profits in the sector were generally under pressure from rising costs and falling sales. Chinese imports are here to stay, he said. "There's no point fighting things that can't be fought. We've just got to raise our profile and highlight our strengths."
I like his attitude, although I wouldn't be too surprised to see an anti-dumping case filed at some point, given the low prices and economic harm mentioned in the article.
