Bloomberg: Demand for potato chips has surged in Japan this week, with products on offer for 6 times their retail price online after Japanese snack company Calbee Inc. halted the sale of some of its most popular chip brands.
Calbee’s pizza-flavored chips were going for about 1,250 yen ($12) on Yahoo Japan Corp.’s auction website Friday. One bag usually sells for less than 200 yen. Photos of near-empty shelves at their local supermarkets were trending on Twitter.
The crunch came after Calbee warned on Monday that it will temporarily halt the sale of 15 types of potato chips due to a bad crop in Hokkaido, a key potato-producing region. The northern island was hit by a record number of typhoons last year. Calbee, which has a market value of 507.9 billion yen and is 20 percent-owned by PepsiCo Inc., has a 73 percent market share of potato chips.
Potato chips are a big deal in Japan, a country also known for its senbei rice crackers and Pocky sticks. Calbee’s potato-snack products were the most and second-most popular snacks in a TV Asahi poll of 10,000 people and 13 confectionery makers last year, and the subject of a primetime show that lasted more than two hours.
SNIP: I lived in Japan as a child and while Calbee products [ Senbei rice crackers , Prawn crackers, and chocolate Pocky Sticks] were an OK treat to have now and again, I didn’t think they were wrist-slitting good. For some strange reason, even though I detested sea food, I still ate the Prawn Crackers. lol
Is there a commercial snack product you can’t live without?
Or do you prefer the home baked stuff, like me?
Going from
fear of GODZILLA
to
fear of POTATO CHIP SHORTAGE…
…tsk…tsk…tsk…
What’s the problem with importing some potatoes?
I recommend the Great Value Low Salt Wavy Chips from Walmart. You can actually taste the potato.
Preceeded by a 2 month advertisement run…
You will not eat just one.
Calling Calbee chips is a misnomar.
Just like in the UK. They are legally called crisps.
Chips are sliced whole potatos, crisps are molded from flavored potato puree and coated with artificial powdered flavorings.
I have 100 plus packets of various Top Ramen msg powder packets left over from over the years. I only use the noodles.
These and a couple cartons of Betty Crocker instant mashed potatoes. FedEx to Japan.
I might be able to retire.
My friend Yoshi exports broken pretzels (the big kind) to Japan.
They go nuts for the Mustard flavored ones.
Take a potato slice it thin fry it in oil
Pizza flavored chips? What’s wrong with those Japs?!? Are they gonna run out of the pantie dispenser vending machines, too?
Call Idaho, get them to send a crop to Mike-Sells, and you’re good to go!
As it turns out, my fond memory of opening a can of “shoestring potato sticks” was apparently implanted.
Chasing potato chips online is probably a welcome distraction from worrying about NoKo warheads with sarin gas. Or worse.
Wonder how sales of iodine tablets and gas masks are doing.
Lord have mercy. The last time a nation had a potato shortage, the country was overrun by Irish.
I bet the squid flavored potato chips are gross. I wonder if the Koreans have Kimchee flavored chips?
That’s it – – I’m only growing potatoes in my garden this year.
How are they set for kale?
Meanwhile, they have plenty of dried seaweed snacks down at Costco…
“Is there a commercial snack product you can’t live without?”
Are Sunflower Seeds considered a snack product? Because I have them everyday.
The real cause of the shortage is the usual suspect.
Government regulations that limits imports.
Koreans eat dried salted squid. Gross.
Prawn flavored chips phucking stink.
I still enjoy potato sticks every once in awhile.
We’re a tostito corn chip family.
Low-salt Cape Cod Potato Chips and some onion dip…mmmmm!