The Zhangqiu iron wok brand, which was highlighted in a domestic food-themed documentary half a year ago, now faces a credit crisis owing to the discovery of counterfeit products, People’s Daily reported on July 10.

The producers saw a huge increase in sales after they featured on a food show named “A Bite of China III”, which aired during the traditional Chinese Spring Festival, scoring daily sales of over ten thousand units during peak times.

Even more impressive, the artisan wok had been backordered for two years, far beyond the production capacity of the local craftsmen.

After it went viral online, the local producers called for reasonable buying for the sake of the company’s healthy development.

However, many small workshops seized the opportunity and swarmed the market, pushing out machine made woks while claiming that they were hand hammered. Customers found pans labeled as hand-hammered Zhangqiu woks on certain e-commerce sites, but were dubious when they saw the items were shipped from other locations.

The Zhangqiu wok, with a mirror-like effect, boasts cultural heritage from Shandong province due to its strict manufacturing procedures and excellent quality, with each creation using 12 different procedures and taking a whole day to make. Unfortunately, however, the brand’s value and overall perceived quality have fallen thanks to fake products flooding the market.

The sellers claiming to be Zhangqiu woks have disturbed the normal market order, going against consumer protection laws and leading to the fall of the brand.

It has taught the real Zhangqiu wok producers that more effort is needed in brand protection and standard making so as to expel the non-hand hammered wok producers from the market.