{"id":509953,"date":"2026-06-25T05:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T05:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/509953\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T05:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T05:49:09","slug":"plastics-shortages-to-keep-food-prices-high-after-war-disruptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/509953\/","title":{"rendered":"Plastics shortages to keep food prices high after war disruptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

SINGAPORE \u2013 Asian consumers will be facing higher grocery bills for months thanks to costly packaging stemming from the Iran war, which created severe shortages of plastics needed to get food from farms to market.<\/p>\n

Disruptions to plastics supply have led to a sharp increase in packaging costs, which some companies are now starting to pass on.<\/p>\n

A gauge of global food prices is already near a three-year high, and further gains risk compounding the pain for households that are also contending with higher pump prices.<\/p>\n

At the core of the fallout is the near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which choked off energy flows \u2013 most bound for Asia \u2013 including a by-product of oil refining known as naphtha, the building block of plastics.<\/p>\n

While some progress has been made towards a lasting agreement to end the war that started in late February<\/a>, a return to pre-conflict levels of supply will likely take time.<\/p>\n

In Vietnam, Minh Phu Seafood has seen plastic packaging costs surge by about 50 per cent since the war started, said Nguyen Hoang Liem, general director of the company\u2019s unit responsible for international trade.<\/p>\n

Known locally as the Shrimp King, the country\u2019s biggest exporter is absorbing the higher expenses but is planning to raise prices for consumers eventually, he said.<\/p>\n

Malaysia\u2019s Farm Fresh has already increased prices for some of its dairy products, boosting them in June for the first time since 2023, chief financial officer Mohd Khairul Mat Hassan said.<\/p>\n

The packaging disruptions were the first of their kind for the company in its 17-year history and forced the group to use smaller, paper cartons while scrambling for alternatives, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll three of our plastic bottle suppliers are dependent on producers of HDPE (high-density polyethylene) resin which source their naphtha from the Middle East,\u201d said Mohd Khairul, adding that consumer preferences have exacerbated the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people still like the plastic bottle \u2013 it\u2019s easy to hold, it\u2019s sturdier and, for a lot of consumers, the taste profile is better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Major naphtha importers Japan and South Korea have been forced to buy more from other countries to offset the shortfall, with higher import costs feeding into regional manufacturers.<\/p>\n

Chai Heng Plastic, a maker of plastic containers used across Malaysia and Singapore, has boosted prices by as much as 20 per cent on some products, according to the company.<\/p>\n

In Japan, Kurihara Seisakusho \u2013 the country\u2019s biggest supplier of egg cartons \u2013 raised prices in June after keeping supply stable at procurement costs that would be \u201cunimaginable under normal circumstances\u201d, said a spokesperson.<\/p>\n

Thailand\u2019s rice industry is also under pressure, with packaging costs up as much as 40 per cent, according to the Thai Rice Packers Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cRice packers have been trying to absorb the increases so far, but for how much longer is unclear,\u201d said Yongyut Phurkmahadamrong, president of the association.<\/p>\n

In Australia\u2019s north-east, Daintree Fresh \u2013 which exported around 200,000 boxes of melons to Japan in 2025 \u2013 is grappling with the rising cost of plastic sheeting that is used to suppress weeds, said director Shaun Jackson.<\/p>\n

This comes alongside elevated expenses for fuel and fertiliser, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re being destroyed,\u201d Jackson said, estimating the company\u2019s overall costs are likely to be as much as 50 per cent higher in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe really sad case is that I\u2019ve got strong demand from Japan. I had to go over there and tell them that I can\u2019t grow for them this year because our costs are too high.\u201d BLOOMBERG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SINGAPORE \u2013 Asian consumers will be facing higher grocery bills for months thanks to costly packaging stemming from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46],"class_list":["post-509953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}