McDonald's Restaurants Here Are Rationing Their French Fries

McDonald's Japan says recent flooding in Canada means it's now having to ration its french fries. The fast-food restaurant chain will block all sales of medium- and large-size fries for the remainder of the year, beginning Friday, according to a release. "Import delays have occurred for potatoes imported from North America due to the effects of a large-scale flood near the Port of Vancouver, Canada—which is a transit point for shipping services," the company says, per the CBC. The outlet notes the port, one of North America's largest shipping hubs, "is still working its way through a backlog of built-up cargo" after significant flooding in November caused it to be cut off from the rest of Canada.

McDonald's Japan also cited "the global supply chain crunch caused by the coronavirus pandemic" for its lack of potatoes, which means customers will be limited to a small-size fry. The company says this is necessary to ensure at least some fries can be sold at its 2,900 Japanese restaurants even as the "stable procurement of resource materials" remains an issue, per the Guardian. Quartz reports it's offering customers a slight discount of 50 yen ($0.44) on combos that normally come with medium-size fries, as it did in December 2014, when McDonald's restaurants in Japan were also forced to ration fries amid a dockworker labor dispute on the US West Coast. (More Japan stories.)