Latest news with #JingGao
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Fly By Jing CEO says Trump's China tariffs are 'disruptive' but her chili crisps can't be sourced from anywhere else
Jing Gao is the founder and CEO of Sichuan chili crisp company Fly By Jing. She told BI that the brand is still committed to sourcing ingredients from her hometown in China. The tariffs "rob Americans of an accessible way to connect with and appreciate cultures at a time when we need it most," she said. "An Update from Jing on Tariffs." This was the subject line of an email from the popular chili crisp brand Fly By Jing. I'd previously purchased the brand as a gift, and the message landed in my inbox on April 11, just a few days into an escalating trade war between the US and China. Founded in 2018, the small business is best known for its popular Chinese chili crisp varieties, sold in stores like Target and Whole Foods. The email said that, as of when it was sent on April 11, the brand's products were subject to a 160% tariff rate, compared to 15% before President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs announcements. "These tariffs have a material impact — not just on our business but countless others, and are disproportionately impacting small, independent brands like ours," the email read. "The integrity of our ingredients, their specific terroir, and the craftsmanship of our products are highly local to Sichuan and will continue to be." I scoped out the brand's Instagram page and saw a video of founder and CEO Jing Gao discussing the tariffs' impact on the business and reached out to hear more. Here is the conversation we had over email, with my questions in bold, and Gao's answers below. How are the tariffs affecting your business? Considering the volatility of the current tariff conversations, it's really important for us as a brand to fully assess the landscape before making major, potentially irreversible decisions. Currently, no orders or shipments are on hold, and our priorities are continuing to source the ingredients for our core sauces from the Sichuan province and keeping our pricing as affordable as possible. The tariff announcements have been on and off, and rates have fluctuated. How did this affect your planning? The current volatility is disruptive and will prove debilitating to many independent businesses. We are fortunate to have built resilience into our organization over the last six years to be able to weather the storm. We have not yet made any major business decisions as we await stabilization, but these fluctuations are impossible to plan for and disproportionately affect small businesses and entrepreneurs. Can you talk about why it's important to you and to the business to source your products from Sichuan? One of our key goals through this all is to maintain the integrity of the ingredients in our core products. Our ingredients come directly from Sichuan — fermented black beans, highly prized Tribute peppers, Erjingtiao chilis, and cold-pressed roasted caiziyou — and simply cannot be grown anywhere else. Last year, you actually dropped prices. Do you see the tariffs impacting product prices going forward, and if so, do you have a timeline on that? Price accessibility for our products is a core tenet of our brand at Fly By Jing. Our mission is to expand palates and introduce new flavors nationwide, so we need our products to be affordable. In service of this, we implemented a significant price decrease last year — even amid rising inflation — and are reaching more homes than ever. Due to the current volatility, it's important for us as a brand to fully assess the landscape before making decisions that will have long-term implications. Right now, our priority is to keep prices as affordable as possible while maintaining the integrity of our ingredients. What has your average day looked like in recent weeks? Are you working longer hours as you navigate the situation? We're at a pivotal moment as a brand and are very focused on expanding to reach new audiences. This news cycle, and its implications, is clearly very consuming as it requires constant attention at an already very busy time — but we are privileged as a brand to have built resilience into our business, which is allowing us to take a step back and assess the situation before reacting. I am speaking often to peers, fellow business owners, and, of course, my team, to gather insights, strategize, and determine the route forward that will allow us to maintain our core brand values. Is there anything you're not seeing discussed around tariffs and their impact on small businesses that you think is important for people to know? Sharing authentic ingredients and flavors is one of the most powerful ways to explore the nuances of other cultures — it sparks curiosity, builds connection, and inspires empathy. These tariffs, which as of today are at least 160%, not only threaten our brand's prosperity, but rob Americans of an accessible way to connect with and appreciate cultures at a time when we need it most. Our success as a brand has proven that bold and diverse international flavors at affordable prices are what Americans want and that they are here to stay. Read the original article on Business Insider
NBC News
14-04-2025
- Business
- NBC News
Talking Shop with Fly By Jing founder Jing Gao
Talking Shop is our series where we talk to interesting people about their most interesting buys. When Jing Gao founded Fly By Jing in 2018, she had one goal: help people bring their favorite Asian flavors home. Prior to starting her company, she ran an underground supper club with a similar intention, and after developing a handful of sauce bases for recipes, she started bottling them to sell. One of those sauces might be in your refrigerator or pantry right now — I practically add Fly By Jing's Sichuan Chili Crisp to anything savory I eat, and use its Sichuan Gold chili oil when I really want to amp up a dish. Of course, Fly By Jing's products are staples in her kitchen, but Gao relies on many others when hosting or cooking dinner for her family. I talked to her about the kitchen essentials she can't live without, plus the food item she used to stuff her suitcase with before flying home from Singapore. 'Zojirushi is the Rolls Royce of rice cookers,' says Gao. 'I use it pretty much every day in my kitchen, and I have a small one because it's just me, my partner and my baby. You just press a button and it makes perfect rice every single time.' Beyond using it for rice, Gao also cooks congee in it. When she's using a wok to boil, steam, stir fry or braise ingredients, Gao's utensil of choice is long wood or bamboo cooking chopsticks. 'They give you more precision when you want to pick things up, and they're really good for separate noodles,' she says. 'Since they're so long, it prevents you from getting your hand all up in the steam and oil that might be splattering.' 'I have a lot of hot pot at home, and whenever I host, I love making it because it's the most simple yet impressive food that just looks beautiful,' says Gao. 'It's such a communal, wonderful experience where you're cooking and eating with friends, and it goes on for hours. It's a huge spread, but all you really did was wash some vegetables, chop some tofu and lay out pre-sliced meats from H-Mart or 99 Ranch.' 'With hot pot, you basically need some kind of a stove on your table,' says Gao. 'I love the Iwatani because you don't need to mess with cords since it runs off gas. You can put it in the middle of your table with your hot pot over it, and it's great for camping, too.' Diaspora Co. Aranya Black Pepper 'I swear by and only use Dispora's black pepper,' says Gao. 'It's the best black pepper and it will make you feel like every black pepper you've had in the past is awful. It's that good.' She also uses the brand's other single-origin, ethically-sourced spices, all of which are 'beautifully packaged' so Gao recommends gifting them to the home cook in your life. Toiro Donabe Steamer Mushi Nabe 'You can make hot pot in any type of pot, but I prefer a donabe, which is a Japanese clay vessel,' she says. 'They've been using it for thousands of years in China and Japan, and there's something about the clay that really holds the heat when you're cooking and amplifies the flavor.' Gao's favorite donabe is from Toiro, a Los Angeles-based brand. 'Toiro's artisan-crafted clay pots are just incredible and their donabe is such a versatile vessel. I cook hot pot in it, but I also use it to cook rice, steam vegetables and make Japanese curries.' Gao has this large donabe from Toiro that comes with a steamer attachment. She often makes soup or rice on the bottom, and salmon and vegetables on top in the steamer. 'It's all about convenience,' says Gao. 'I love making fresh rice, but sometimes, I just do not have the time,' says Gao. 'Having ready-to-eat rice in a bag that you just microwave for a minute is so easy.' She often uses Lundberg's 90-second rice to make fried rice, and adds vegetables and eggs to it. Irvins Salted Egg Salmon Skin Chip Crisps 'The most popular snack brand from Asia is Irvins, which is based in Singapore. I would literally go to Singapore and stop at the airport just to grab these chips,' says Gao. 'They're most famous for their salmon skin chips. Somehow, the way they fry it makes it super crispy and delicious, and they coat it in all kinds of flavors, like salted duck egg.' Why trust NBC Select? I'm a reporter at NBC Select who covers topics like health, fitness, home and kitchen. I interviewed Jing Gao, founder of Fly By Jing and cookbook author, about her favorite products to cook with at home.
