Chopstick factory nears completion

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The Sturgeon Lake band is busy building a future in the world of international trade and they're doing it with chopsticks.

After two years f perseverance, the timber-rich reserve, located 10 miles west of Valleyview, is shaping up to take on the Japanese market with the first chopstick factory of its kind in North America. The building is only 75 per cent completed and already it's drumming up more ideas.

The $3 million project is more than just another business venture, according to Steve Shang, general manager of the newly established Cree Valley Industries Ltd. It's a way for Alberta Natives to use their resources effectively.

Shang, 38, sees the innovative concept as a way of diversifying the Alberta Native economy and, at the same time, help the Aboriginal people attain status as world-class

entrepreneurs.

He says its important Indian bands acquire experience on the international corporate scene.

The Sturgeon Lake band is now in the world-class market. It will help them get ready for the future because the world will become a wide open marketplace before you know it."

After approaching the band with his idea in 1987, Shang says there was a mutual belief the benefits of such a venture would be worth the effort. He says the federal government wasn't so optimistic.

Cree Valley Industries Ltd. (CVI) had trouble at first obtaining a $600,000 grant from the Native Economic Development Program because they didn't yet have a major investor to back them. CVI went looking for funding and found it across the Pacific in Harbin, China. They also returned from the Orient with a buyer for their goods, Michaelson Japan Ltd.

Now, Shang says, CVI has the capital to compete with anyone in the world using the chopstick production technology called Rikyu. He says it's a technique that makes chopstick production faster and more efficient by using a shaper machine. Eventually, they'll be turning out 15,000,000 chopsticks per day for shipping for Tokyo.

The deal will afford Sturgeon Lake 66 per cent of the profits. The rest will go to Hightech Corporation of China who extended CVI a revocable line of credit of over $1 million in Canadian funds.

Shang, an engineering graduate from the University of Alberta, admits it took a lot of convincing to get the plan off the ground but says the finished product should prove CVI can stick with an idea.

Because he's been involved in Pacific Rim business deals since 1985, Shang says he could see the potential Sturgeon Lake had for producing chopstick, not merely from an economic standpoint. He says there's an environmental element as well.

"I felt they should invest their efforts in a project that uses both natural and human resources effectively." Industries in northern Alberta should be on reserve, run by the reserves and for reserves, he says.

Ronald Sunshine, Sturgeon Lake band chief, says it's good to create jobs locally but it's also good for the band to use its own timber. He says the reserve's Aspen tree supply will be selectively collected. "We won't clear cut. We'll spread it out....I can see a lot of labor involved in that process. It will be good for our future."

Shang says plans for another 10 chopstick plants in Alberta are under negotiations. One is already slated for High Prairie.

The 8,000-square-foot Sturgeon Lake plant will offer 60 full-time positions. Shang says CVI is now filling positions in middle management. He hopes to complete the entire hiring process by the opening date in June.