McDonald's Japan slices fries to small size as it faces shipping snags

A customer puts pumpkin and choco sauce on a McFry Potato as she eats McDonald’s Japan’s ‘Halloween Choco Fries – Pumpkin & Choco Sauce’ in Tokyo, Japan, September 29, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

TOKYO, Jan 7 (Reuters) – Japanese customers will have to settle for a small serving of McDonald’s fries for the next month or so after the fast-food chain said it was limiting portions due to shipping problems.

McDonald’s Holdings Company Japan said in a statement on Friday that the impact of flood damage on the port of Vancouver and other disruptions since last year would delay an expected shipment of potatoes from North America.

Global shipping operations continue to be severely affected by a mix of factors including COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, extreme weather and a rapid recovery in demand.

As a result, McDonald’s said that from Sunday it would sell only S-sized fries for about a month “to make sure we have plenty of inventory and our customers can enjoy McDonald’s fries without interruption.”

The fast-food chain took the same step for a week at the end of December at its roughly 2,900 branches in Japan.