Gnome Maker’s Slump Shows China Export Threat

Yu Guoying is struggling to halt a plunge in developing-market sales of her grinning garden gnomes.

“I feel a bit lost,” said Yu, co-owner of Bo Lun Resin Craft Products, based in China’s southeastern Fujian province. Her company, which exports mostly to Russia, Turkey and South Korea, saw profits fall to less than 4 million yuan ($650,000) last year from 10 million yuan in 2008.