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.