Demand for potato chips surged in Japan this week, with products on offer for six times their retail price online after snack maker Calbee Inc. halted the sale of some of its most popular chip brands.
Calbee's pizza-flavored chips were selling for about ¥1,250 on Yahoo Japan Corp.'s auction website Friday. One bag usually sells for less than ¥200. Photos of near-empty shelves at their supermarkets were trending on Twitter.
The crunch came after Calbee warned Monday that it will temporarily halt the sale of 15 different kinds of potato chips due to a bad crop in Hokkaido, a key potato-producing region. The island was hit by a record number of typhoons last year. Calbee, which has a market value of ¥507.9 billion and is 20 percent owned by PepsiCo Inc., has a 73 percent share of the potato chip market.