Flooding in a port in Vancouver, Canada, where many potatoes are loaded with final destination Japan. The potatoes McDonald’s uses on the island to make fries are imported from North America, the fast food company said.
There are also delivery problems due to the corona pandemic. Together they cause shortages of one of the most important products sold by the fast food chain.
McDonald’s is trying to help solve the problem by getting the potatoes to Japan in a different way, for example by air freight. It also works together with suppliers and importers.
But the chain is forced to stop selling large and medium portions of fries from Friday until December 30, in order to be able to supply as many customers as possible with fries on their menu.
McDonald’s has about 2,900 stores in Japan. The company hopes to have the issues resolved before New Year’s Eve. Customers temporarily receive a discount on menus of 40 euro cents because of the smaller portions of fries.
Usually the menus are served with a medium portion of fries, with customers having the option of choosing a larger or smaller portion. A small bag of fries is about 74 grams, which is about two times smaller than a medium-sized portion.