McDonald Rationing Fries- Starting Wednesday, Dec. 17, 33 percent of people in Japan patronizing the giant burger fastfood can no longer order medium and large fries. McDonald rationing fries was a move to solve the growing global shipping issues.
A lot of McDonald's fanatics were completely dismayed upon learning the latest news.
Apparently, Japan is facing potato shortage due to global shipping problems and for this, McDonald rationing fries would be the most practical solution to limit the serving and yet serve the demands of McDonald's customers in Japan.
Labor disagreement of the port workers on the West Coast resulted to limited shipping of potatoes to Japan despite additional delivery from the U.S. East Coast by the sea and emergency shipping of 1,000 tons of processed potatoes by air CTV News reports.
Labor argument led to succeeding protests in California and the Pacific Northwest ports from the recent years, ABC News reported. A McDonald's official has claimed that the extended disagreements prompted them to McDonald Rationing Fries in Japan.
A lot of Japanese patronize McDonald's due to its quality and price. However, with McDonald rationing fries a lot of Japanese have expressed their negative reactions on the issue.
"I usually buy a Big Mac with medium fries so I'm disappointed," stated Kaoru Yamano, working at a trading company. "I probably won't return until fries are back on the menu."
"The kids like the bigger sizes, like M and L, so it's a shame," said Kenichi Kuniki, 45, businessman.
McDonald rationing fries to serve only "Potato S" (Japan term for Small fries) may not be good news to hordes of people in Japan who love fries but McDonald's officials have seen it the only thing to solve the growing crisis of frozen spuds.
Japan has upsurge demand for imported potatoes since a steady decline of potato production was felt in the recent years. Local potato production fell to 3.5 percent while import for the product increased by 28 percent in 2013, Agro Chart reports.
Japan demands for frozen potato products particularly French fries have been constant in years. Japan has potato demand of 3.5 million metric tons due to the growing presence of fastfood chains and convenience stores that resulted to increased import for potatoes.
With McDonald rationing fries, the fastfood giant in Japan was forced to lower prices on set menus to accommodate small fries. A Big Mac meal with large fries costs 669 yen ($5.71) but with "Potato S" it costs 619 yen ($5.29).
It is not yet clear how McDonald rationing fries will affect McDonald's national sales performance at the end of the year and in the coming days. Earlier McDonald's sales had already suffered a huge dent following food safety scandal at Shanghai-based supplier.
Before McDonald rationing fries took effect, McDonald's Holdings Co (Japan) Ltd declared that after the food safety scandal, the company is forecasting a net loss of 17 billion yen ($156.7 million) for this year, the first loss in a period of 11 years.
Aside from McDonald rationing fries, Japan is also experiencing crisis on butter allowing only one to two packages of butter per customer in every grocery store. Supply for butter has also been affected by trade problems, imported limitations and waning local production.
No one knows until when McDonald rationing fries could take effect. For now, it will be just "Potato S" or "Fries S."
No more large fries in Japan as McDonald’s begins rationing https://t.co/WHakVJXfQA pic.twitter.com/X1Fu1aNb6n
— The National (@TheNationalUAE) December 17, 2014
Fatty food rationing in Japan! "The French Fry Crisis of 2014 comes hot on the heels of a butter shortage" https://t.co/2tYCXGpAvk — Len Burman (@lenburman) December 16, 2014
