Restaurant chain operator Yoshinoya D&C can't win for losing.

The company said Monday it will remove chicken-on-rice dishes from its menu in mid-March as stocks of processed poultry products are running out due to a ban on imports from Thailand and China due to avian flu.

Yoshinoya was Japan's largest operator of restaurants serving bowls of "gyudon" beef on rice. But it had to introduce the chicken-based dish as an alternative after it stopped selling the beef bowls earlier this year due to a ban on beef imports from the United States over mad cow disease.

Although Japan is expected to remove the ban on imports of processed poultry products from Thailand in the near future, "much time will be needed" before the products start arriving in Japan, a Yoshinoya official said.

Yoshinoya relies on Thailand for 30 percent of its processed poultry products for the chicken-on-rice dishes and China for 70 percent.

It is now working on plans to introduce a new alternative meal.