THE potato shortage has now spread to South Korea with fast food chains McDonald's and Lotteria facing problems serving their popular French fries.
Company officials said they were replacing their popular French fries with chicken nuggets or cheese sticks due to climate change issues and supply chain problems amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to a Korea Times report, this comes after the companies previously had tomato and lettuce supply issues.
Customers have started expressing frustrations over the changes, as both fast food franchises have been changing their menus frequently.
Lotteria posted an online notice that some of its restaurants may replace French fries with other sides due to the shortage while McDonald's has shared a similar post asking for customers' understanding.
Lotte GRS, operator of Lotteria, said it was now looking for other global potato suppliers instead of the United States, from where it imports most of its potatoes from.
"We started to import frozen potatoes from Europe last year to cope with repeated supply difficulties. The quality of potatoes may be different (from American potatoes), but the company decided it is better to supply the food stably first," a Lotte GRS official said.
McDonald's Korea said some restaurants in the country might offer other sides from the menu instead of French fries and that it was not a big issue.
"We have posted the notice in case we might face difficulty supplying French fries, but it is not a big problem for now. Only a few of our stores are offering chicken nuggets instead of French fries," a company official said.
Most local franchise firms use imported frozen potatoes from the United States. South Korea does not grow much potatoes due to its low profitability.
Idaho is one of the largest potato-producing US states, but the region was affected by a drought and heat wave last year.
The pandemic added to the problem as it caused a labour shortage during the potato harvesting season.
Japan and several other Asian countries recently had similar issues with their supply of potatoes and they were forced to look at other sources to resolve the issue.
McDonald's Japan and other fast food chains in the country had also swapped their French fries with other menu options as customers there similarly complained about the unexpected change.