Business Standard

Dealing with the great Japan potato-chip crisis

Companies halt sales of some chip brands after bad potato crop

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Shoko Oda | Bloomberg
Demand for potato chips has surged in Japan this week, with products on offer for six times their retail price online after Japanese snack company Calbee halted the sale of some of its most popular chip brands.

Calbee’s pizza-flavoured chips were going for about 1,250 yen ($12) on Yahoo Japan’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,

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