Heading to the land of the rising sun anytime soon? Keen to head out for a big night on the Asahi‘s? Figuring you’ll need to ease the Tokyo Drift in your head the next morning with a quick trip to Ronald’s House of Flavour? Your dreams of having your own Lost In Translation moment atop a bed of glorious chipped potatoes might be in big trouble.
Thanks to a drop in potato exports caused by industrial action in the docks of the US West Coast, Japan is currently in the midst of a pretty severe shortage of french fries.
Dockworkers in the States have reportedly been engaged in go-slow action for months, refusing to provide full crews for ships in an attempt to gain leverage during labour negotiations. The resulting drop in exports has hit Japan particularly hard in areas of food, with french fries the latest victim.
The shortage has caused the Japanese arm of McDonald’s to take the unprecedented step of rationing servings of the product, limiting customers to small sizes only, even despite sourcing an emergency shipment of some 2,600 tonnes.
“[We have] airlifted more than 1,000 tonnes of potatoes as an emergency measure and also shipped 1,600 tonnes by sea from the US East Coast, but this is not enough to offer a stable supply to customers.”
“We will temporarily change our product lineup… until a stable supply of potatoes is in sight.”
“It is difficult for us to get potatoes in a sustainable manner due to lagging labour negotiations on the US West Coast.”
‘Course there’s nothing in that statement to suggest you can’t roll up to a Macca’s in the middle of downtown Tokyo and order yourself 300 small fries like the starchy boss you are.
Still, tough times for our Pacific Rim brethren. And certainly no time to be rubbing our gloriously golden fried paradise of spuds in their faces.
Photo: Justin Sullivan via Getty Images.
via SBS News.
