Overview
- Calbee, which announced the change Tuesday, will limit printing to two colors on 14 products starting the week of May 25 to keep items on shelves, and says product quality will not change.
- The company cites unstable supply of ink ingredients tied to naphtha, a petroleum product used in inks and plastics, after traffic through the Strait of Hormuz was curtailed.
- Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kei Sato says Japan has received no reports of immediate nationwide shortages and that naphtha imports from outside the Middle East tripled in May, with ministries meeting Calbee to assess needs.
- The switch covers popular Potato Chips flavors such as Lightly Salted, Consomme Punch, and Seaweed Salt, plus Kappa Ebisen and Frugra, and Kyodo reports a late‑June redesign for two Kataage Potato bags.
- Naphtha once supplied from the Middle East for roughly 40% of Japan’s needs underpins printing inks, which helps explain why other firms like Toto, Mizkan, and Itoham Yonekyu have adjusted orders, prices, or packaging and may foreshadow wider material shifts if constraints persist.