Potato growers in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan’s second-largest spud-producing region, are pinning their hopes on a new disease-resistant variety to avoid another crop shortage of the kind that halted sales of chips and other snack products this year. The prefecture plans to expand the…
Potato growers in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan’s second-largest spud-producing region, are pinning their hopes on a new disease-resistant variety to avoid another crop shortage of the kind that halted sales of chips and other snack products this year.
The prefecture plans to expand the cultivation of the tasty new variety, suitable for chips and other processed products, as it expects strong demand driven by popular takeaway items such as fries and croquettes.
According to the Japan Snack Cereal Foods Association, the volume of potato chip shipments in Japan rose by over 30 percent between 2004 and 2016. That compares to a 10 percent decline in the shipment of potatoes over the 2005-2015 period, according to the farm ministry.
Demand had already outstripped supply. The situation was further aggravated by a poor harvest last year in Hokkaido, Japan’s leading potato region, due to low temperatures and typhoons that buffeted the northernmost prefecture. As a result, major potato chip makers had to suspend the sales of some of their products earlier this year, prompting cries of a “potato chip crisis” among the media and consumers.
