Japan's top confectionery corporations, Calbee, will switch the packaging of its flagship potato chips to black and white because of a surge in global oil prices and a shortage of naphtha. After Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz, a key chokepoint for the world's crude shipments, the supply of naphtha, a byproduct of oil refining, was hit directly, cutting off even the procurement of printing ink made from naphtha. The move is an unavoidable stopgap.
According to major outlets including the Yomiuri Shimbun and the Sankei Shimbun on the 12th, Calbee decided to sequentially convert its potato chip package printing to two-tone black and white starting with shipments on the 25th. The move covers 14 items in total, including the signature products "Lightly Salted" and "Consomme Punch." The launch of the new "Sour Cream" flavor, originally slated for July, has been put on hold entirely. Calbee said, "With the deterioration of conditions in the Middle East, procurement of materials and supplies has become extremely unstable," adding, "Because it is difficult to predict the outlook, we will respond flexibly with stable product supply as our top priority."
The color ink shortage appears to be spreading beyond Calbee to Japanese industry overall. Naphtha is a key component in the solvents and resins used in printing ink. Japanese corporations, which rely on imports for most of their crude oil, have been hit hard by the naphtha crunch. Meat processor Itoham Yonekyu Holdings suggested it may stop using flashy packaging and shift to simpler designs. A mid-sized beverage company also decided to halt container printing for 15 beverage items from late this month, making a wider rollout of unprinted packaging unavoidable.
Tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, which triggered the situation, show no sign of easing. Even talks between the United States and Iran to end the armed clashes have gone awry. U.S. President Donald Trump said on social media on the 10th about Iran's peace proposal, "I just read the response from the so-called 'delegation' from Iran. I do not like it. Totally unacceptable."
With Trump making his rejection explicit in public, market expectations for a breakthrough anytime soon have cooled sharply. Iran has dug in, demanding sanctions relief and security guarantees from the United States, while attacks on merchant ships and drones have continued near the territorial waters of Qatar and Kuwait. With no compromise in sight between the two countries, the surge in global oil and naphtha prices is expected to continue for the time being.