Japan chip maker shifts to monochrome packs amid Iran war supply strain

TOKYO: Japan’s biggest potato chip manufacturer is changing some of its well-known brightly coloured packaging to monochrome designs after supply disruptions linked to the Iran war affected access to key materials.

Calbee, a familiar name in Japan’s snack market, said on Tuesday that it would revise packaging specifications for 14 product lines and switch to using only two colours from later this month or in June. While the company did not specify the exact colours in its announcement, images released with the statement showed grey-toned packaging.

The company said the move was prompted by supply instability affecting certain raw materials because of escalating tensions in the Middle East. Local media reports said Calbee’s procurement of printing ink had been hit by shortages of naphtha, an oil byproduct used across a range of industries.

Among the products affected are several potato chip varieties, a breakfast cereal and Kappa Ebisen, the shrimp-based snack associated with the slogan can’t stop, can’t stop. "We will continue to respond swiftly and flexibly to changes in the business environment, including geopolitical risks, while striving to deliver safe, reliable, and satisfying products," the company said.

Calbee is known for potato chips sold in a variety of flavours, including seaweed salt as well as soy sauce and butter.

Other firms also weigh packaging changes

Another Japanese food producer, Itoham Yonekyu Holdings, also said that switching some products to black-and-white packaging or using different kinds of inks could be considered in the future. The company likewise cited supply problems stemming from the conflict in the Middle East.

The disruption is tied to pressure on supplies moving through the Strait of Hormuz, a route through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil normally passes. Its de facto closure since the war began in late February has driven prices sharply higher.

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi had previously said the country was expected to have enough naphtha-derived chemical products to last beyond the end of the year after increasing imports from outside the Middle East.

The packaging change by Calbee highlights how the conflict’s effects are reaching beyond energy markets and into consumer goods production, with shortages of industrial inputs now affecting the appearance of everyday food products on store shelves in Japan.