Chuang and his brother were importing semi-precious stones from Brazil, South Africa, and India and turning them into finished gems for export primarily to the United States. Business was pretty good, but they had to buy their raw materials from Taiwanese importers, overseas exporters, and mining companies. They wanted to end their reliance on all these middlemen and buy straight from the source.
莊英漢和大哥聯手經營珠寶業，自巴西、南非、印度等產地進口半寶石原料，加工製為成品，以外銷美國為主，生意還不錯，但產地的貨源必須仰賴進口商、當地出口商和產地礦商，層層轉手，因而一直想直接到產地去購買。