Importing mesquite from China????

[Cyngbaeld]

My friend in Wisconsin told me her husband does blacksmithing for a hobby and likes mesquite but it has to be imported from China! He pays $100 for 40# of mesquite charcoal when he can get it!

Seems like some enterprising souls in the southwest could make some cash here.

[Spinner]

Why is ANYONE importing Mesquite? Is it cheaper to import it than to truck it up from Texas? Does BB give them a tax break if they import instead of using domestic product? This is one of those idiot things that makes me set and shake my head in wonder.

[cowgirlone]

Wow!!
We get ours for free..........wonder what the difference in the two would be?

[next61]

It might poison you!!!!!!

[Cyngbaeld]

I think the difference is only availability on the market. You know, there are probably people who would pay you to clear their land of the stuff.

[Jenn]

Charcoal is different from wood. A large charcoal maker here might have pollution controls they sadly do not have in China. NPR just had a segment on a town there in a lowlying area where they make coke (from coal, similar process as wood to charcoal) to help the local iron industry and the leukemia and other cancer rates there are astronomical.

[Spinner]

There are charcoal plants in Missouri so it wouldn't be difficult to take mesquite from TX to MO and then move it on around from that central point. I think I'll talk to a friend in MO and see if they can get someone interested in doing that. I'd do just about anything to keep money from flowing to China.

[fordy]

..............I've always been told that the reason that mesquite is Preferred for grilling is because it burns much hotter than other kinds of wood . , fordy...

[texican]

What they're "probably" doing is cutting down good ol' Texas mesquite, shipping the raw product over to our Chinese brothers, and they're exporting back the finished value added product to us!

Personally I'd rather have one of Ken Scharabok's propane forges (converted to natural gas, as I've got free gas!)

[vicker]

Hey, at my mill we sell veneer logs to a fellow from Indonesia, He buys 1000 shipping containers a year (not all from us of course) ships them to Indonesia, makes flooring of them, and then ships them back and sells for a good profit. He told me it costs more to truck the logs to port in Va. than to ship them halfway round the world. The reason is that there are plenty of empty ships going that way needing ballast.

[Cyngbaeld]

Phil, my friend says that the propane is so loud it was making her hubby deaf. Suppose he could wear hearing protectors?