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The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

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Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#101

Post by Trd »

ajross wrote: post #49
coldtea wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Surely there is a middle ground between "stupid chip shortage" and "loss of local agriculture" though. Japan can grow potatoes and trade them too. Like I said, everyone does this to some extent. But Japan is among the worst

That middle ground would be something like price regulation. Instead of just imposing quotas or forbidding imports of specific goods, require the imported goods to be sold at the market rate of the locally produced good.

It would allow imports to prevent shortages in the market without killing the local producers because there is no reason to stop buying from local producers if the imported goods cannot be sold at a price lower than what the local producers are willing to bear. Distributors would continue buying local, while also adding some imports as a cushion against production fluctuations.

Tax the difference between the local market price and the lower imported good price, when the imports are cheaper. Don't tax when the import is at the same cost/more expensive.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#102

Post by YokoZar »

glandium wrote: post #53
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.

No, the primary cause of the shortage is that 70+% of the potato supply comes from one specific region of Japan, and that that region has had a very bad Typhoon which caused bad crops. IOW, the primary cause of the shortage was a (almost) SPOF in the supply chain.

And why is there a single point of failure? Because there is a hard cap on imports. No cap -> no shortage, just as much as no typhoon -> no shortage.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#103

Post by princeb »

kalleboo wrote: post #74
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.

I think it was last year that McDonald's Japan had to stop selling fries in portions bigger than small since their potatoes were imported from the US, and that supply was cut off due to union strike action in a US port. Any kind of single-sourcing is a bad idea.

it was in 2015.

Singapore McDonald's ran out of curry dip due to the port congestion. Which was really funny to me because the dip was manufactured in the states even if it's not consumed there.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#105

Post by laughingman2 »

nmerouze wrote: post #8

Agriculture in Japan is very under-developed. You add the import restrictions and it leads to produce being twice as expensive (if not more) than most western countries. It also means lack of variety. And organic products are rare. Shortages are a thing bound to happen. I was hoping for TPP to be accepted, but now I am just going to leave the country.

I guess there are other people who would applaud the japanese to aim for self sufficiency in producing food instead of selling out to corporate interests of few engaging in globalized trade.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#106

Post by emodendroket »

iopq wrote: post #86
emodendroket wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the claim here that Japan is not able to trade as often as it would like? That seems to be obviously wrong.

Of course it's not. When you erect trade barriers with other countries, they don't want to trade with you that much either. So exports to other countries are probably limited by the import policy of Japan, since they never made trade deals that lower tariffs on both ends.

But that is what is, in my opinion, obviously wrong. Go on a drive in any town in America and tell me there aren't a lot of Japanese products being sold here.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#107

Post by lithos »

Pitarou wrote: post #43
emodendroket wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It‘s not as simple as that. Japan‘s agricultural system was intended to be a temporary prop, to help agriculture recover after the War. The people would experience inflated prices and erratic supplies, but that was thought a price worth paying. The system has been kept in place for decades longer than its stated purpose required. The forces that keep it in place are powerful, and democratic only in the loosest sense…

Are you suggesting people to vote against their interest? That doesn't sound very democratic.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#108

Post by ericdykstra »

mistermann wrote: post #90
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> companies are pretty strict about quality of their imported goods like potatoes in Japan >> Calbee spokeswoman "cited regulatory hurdles, which limit the amount of imported potatoes that can be used in products, as partly responsible for the shortage" Japanese farmers are reliable voters. The evidence for an electoral motive, over a national security imperative, is Japanese farms' small plots and low yields [1]. Th…

Off topic, but diversity in economic approaches like this is one of the beneficial things we lose as we embrace globalism.

I'm not sure if it's a result of this kind of protectionism or not, but in general meat and fruit especially is much higher quality than what I had when I was living in the US.

For fruit, the size of the individual fruits is smaller in general, but much more flavorful. The yields are lower (and thus price more expensive), but that's what happens when fruit is bred for flavor rather than volume.

I imagine meat has something to do with the diet. I don't think Japanese farmers are feeding their cows human candy.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#109

Post by nmerouze »

laughingman2 wrote: post #105
nmerouze wrote: post #8

Agriculture in Japan is very under-developed. You add the import restrictions and it leads to produce being twice as expensive (if not more) than most western countries. It also means lack of variety. And organic products are rare. Shortages are a thing bound to happen. I was hoping for TPP to be accepted, but now I am just going to leave the country.

I guess there are other people who would applaud the japanese to aim for self sufficiency in producing food instead of selling out to corporate interests of few engaging in globalized trade.

If it was sustainable, I would applaud. But the reality is that young people don't want to take over the farms and rural population decreases rapidly. Even with incentives, new people don't want to take over farms because investment needed to modernize them is too important.

Re: The Great Japan Potato-Chip Crisis

#110

Post by Markoff »

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.

then why not just import chips? even the regular price 2$ pretty package seen extremely high, i am buying 150g back of supermarket brand chips for 0.5€ here, so even with transportation doubling the price it would still cost half of normal Japanese price
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