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The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

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Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#11

Post by mistersquid »

ajross wrote: post #4
memracom wrote: post #2

Life on an island...

Life on an island with a historically strict protectionist food policy. There is no potato shortage, per se (per the article, I'm surely no expert). There's a shortage of potatoes from Hokkaido, and domestic consumers aren't prepared for (or allowed to) buy them from an international market. Japan isn't the only nation to do this, of course. But they're one of the worst.

I buy imported-from-Japan Kataage [0] potato chips at my local Nijiya market and to my taste these chips are much higher quality than, for example, Kettle brand and Frito-Lay brand potato chips.

Not sure if it's due to the potatoes, but the quality is undeniably (to my taste) higher.

[0] https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=japan+K...

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#12

Post by emodendroket »

seunosewa wrote: post #5

I was thinking, "this is ridiculous; why can't they just import more potatoes?" and then I found this: "She also cited regulatory hurdles, which limit the amount of imported potatoes that can be used in products, as partly responsible for the shortage." No, it is primarily responsible for the shortage.

If, as your post seems to be recommending, such regulations were abolished, Japanese farmers would pretty much cease to exist because of their inability to compete with cheaper imports. Maybe you consider that an unacceptable tradeoff for some potato chip shortages but it's not clear that the Japanese share your sense of priorities.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#14

Post by coldtea »

ajross wrote: post #4
memracom wrote: post #2

Life on an island...

Life on an island with a historically strict protectionist food policy. There is no potato shortage, per se (per the article, I'm surely no expert). There's a shortage of potatoes from Hokkaido, and domestic consumers aren't prepared for (or allowed to) buy them from an international market. Japan isn't the only nation to do this, of course. But they're one of the worst.

>Life on an island with a historically strict protectionist food policy. There is no potato shortage, per se (per the article, I'm surely no expert). There's a shortage of potatoes from Hokkaido, and domestic consumers aren't prepared for (or allowed to) buy them from an international market.

Yeah, if only they gave up their autonomy and local agriculture to have more access to chips from abroad.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#15

Post by emodendroket »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #10
yladiz wrote: post #3

It's an interesting experience seeing some shelves in 7-11 here in Tokyo partly empty due to this shortage -- outside of perishable goods like onigiri, it's pretty uncommon to see something like potato chips missing on a shelf. I wonder how long it'll take for the shortage to end, and if they'll be able to mitigate it by importing. One thing it doesn't mention in this article is that companies are pretty strict about…

Are US potatoes really lower quality than Japanese ones?

Without protectionist regulation Japanese farming isn't competitive.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#16

Post by emodendroket »

ajross wrote: post #4
memracom wrote: post #2

Life on an island...

Life on an island with a historically strict protectionist food policy. There is no potato shortage, per se (per the article, I'm surely no expert). There's a shortage of potatoes from Hokkaido, and domestic consumers aren't prepared for (or allowed to) buy them from an international market. Japan isn't the only nation to do this, of course. But they're one of the worst.

I don't see it as totally outlandish to protect domestic industry at the cost of not being able to get produce as cheaply or easily as you could otherwise. It's not as though Japan is suffering from starvation.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#18

Post by yladiz »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #10
yladiz wrote: post #3

It's an interesting experience seeing some shelves in 7-11 here in Tokyo partly empty due to this shortage -- outside of perishable goods like onigiri, it's pretty uncommon to see something like potato chips missing on a shelf. I wonder how long it'll take for the shortage to end, and if they'll be able to mitigate it by importing. One thing it doesn't mention in this article is that companies are pretty strict about…

Are US potatoes really lower quality than Japanese ones?

I doubt it, especially since you can generally get a much wider range of varieties of potatoes in the US than in Japan, not just organic/non-organic, but different colored potatoes as well. My guess is that the rhetoric coming from the companies that US potato quality is lower is more due to the government being protectionist about national agriculture.

It's also probably due to the mentality that producers want specific kinds of potatoes for specific purposes and maybe only trust Japanese farmers to make the specific kind of potatoes the way they want them.

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