MOSCOW – Former McDonald’s restaurants in Russia are reportedly facing a shortage of French fries due to a poor harvest and Western sanctions against Ukraine, a business daily reported on Friday.
The American fast-food giant announced in May that it would leave Russia following Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.
A Russian businessman bought the operation of 850 restaurants, whose brand is now known as “Vkusno i Tochka” (“Delicious. Full Stop”).
The restaurant that introduced McDonald’s to Russia in 1990, marking Moscow’s opening after decades of Soviet rule, reopened in June with a new name and logo.
But now some restaurants in the chain are experiencing a shortage of fries.
“Some of the recently opened restaurants in Vkusno i Tochka will not have fries,” the RBC business daily quoted the company as saying.
“Vkusno i Tochka” did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.
The shortage has been linked to a poor harvest in 2021, as well as the company’s inability to import potatoes from several countries due to Western sanctions.
The company hopes fried potato slices will be back on its restaurant menus in the fall with the start of the new harvest year.
The world’s largest French fries maker, McCain, said in March it was giving up on building a factory in Russia and suspending all supplies of its products to the Russian market.
- AFP