A new kind of chip shortage has hit Japanese supply chains, with McDonald’s forced to ration fries as Covid-19 and floods in Canada squeeze potato imports.
McDonald’s Japan said it would only sell small-sized french fries for a week from Friday to avoid shortages. “Due to large-scale flooding near the Port of Vancouver … and the global supply chain crunch caused by the coronavirus pandemic, there are delays in the supply of potatoes.”
The company said it had taken the measure to ensure that customers could still order fries, even though the “stable procurement of resource materials” was proving difficult.
The chain suffered a similar issue in December 2014, due to a labour dispute taking place on the other side of the Pacific.
More than 3,000 McDonald’s restaurants in Japan – the biggest Asian market for US frozen potato products – said they would sell only small-sized portions of fries for the foreseeable future amid a protracted dispute between 20,000 dockworkers and terminal operators and shipping lines at 29 ports on the US west coast.
In response McDonald’s Japan took the emergency step of importing 1,000 tonnes of frozen fries by air.
The most recent restriction comes during the busy year-end period with schools and offices beginning to close for the holidays.
It will also be in place on Christmas Day – commonly celebrated in Japan with a hearty serving of another US fast-food, KFC, which is heavily marketed around the festive period.
Meanwhile, a pandemic-fuelled global microchip shortage continues to plague carmakers including Japan’s Toyota, which has announced production cuts due to the crisis and supply chain problems in south-east Asia.
With Agence France-Presse