"We're doing everything we can to resume sales again," said Rie Makuuchi, a spokeswoman for Tokyo-based Calbee. She said the company will consider using more imported potatoes from the U.S. and ask potato farmers in the southern island of Kyushu to harvest their crop earlier than scheduled. She also cited regulatory hurdles, which limit the amount of imported potatoes that can be used in products, as partly responsible for the shortage.
It's not the first time Japan's seen a shortage of food staples -- a declining number of dairy farmers and lack of imports due to high tariffs has led to butter shortages in the past, accompanied by exhaustive media coverage.
Smaller potato-chip rival Koike-ya Inc. has also halted the sale of nine snack products. The company only uses domestic potatoes and therefore won't rely on imports, according to spokesman Kazuya Obata. Both Koike-ya and Calbee said they aren't sure when sales will resume.
Twitter users sent encouraging tweets to Calbee, which apologized for the crunch via its official Twitter account. If nothing else, the shortage appeared to remind people how much they liked their potato chips.
"I realised how addicted I was to potato chips after the halt," one person tweeted. "I'll be waiting for sales to resume. Hang in there!"
- Bloomberg
