Tokyo-based Calbee Inc. will shift 14 of its snack products to black-and-white packaging beginning May 25, limiting printing to two ink colors, according to The Associated Press. Customers in Japan, the U.S., China, and Australia who buy the company's potato chips and shrimp chips will find the products themselves unaffected by the change.
At the root of the packaging change is the ongoing conflict in Iran, which has effectively shut down traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and driven up prices and scarcity of petroleum-based goods, according to the AP. Because Japan imports nearly all of the oil it consumes, it has felt acute pressure on supplies of naphtha, a petroleum derivative that goes into both plastics and printing ink.
No end date for the monochrome packaging has been announced, and Calbee offered no timeline for when full-color designs might return.
One visible example is the usu shio variety — Calbee's lightly salted chip — whose vivid orange bag once displayed an illustration of yellow chips alongside a hat-wearing potato-man character; that imagery has been replaced by plain monochrome text, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"Calbee will continue to respond flexibly and promptly to changes in its operating environment, including geopolitical risks, and remains committed to maintaining a stable supply of safe, high-quality products," the company said in a statement, according to the AP. "We ask for your understanding."
The ink-supply disruption arrives at an awkward moment for Calbee: the company had unveiled a broad growth strategy only in March, and its workforce across the group numbers more than 5,000 employees at an operation that dates to 1949.