{"id":634969,"date":"2026-10-19T05:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T05:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/634969\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T05:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T05:18:08","slug":"japans-leafy-greens-shortage-hits-restaurants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/634969\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan&#8217;s leafy greens shortage hits restaurants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text-primary article-summary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">TOKYO \u2013 Major restaurant chains in Japan are grappling with supply shortages and high prices for leafy greens, after the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/asia\/east-asia\/tokyos-record-rainfall-streak-ends-after-37-days?ref=inline-article\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"gap-x-04 items-center inline text-primary-60 select-auto\" aria-label=\"link\" target=\"_blank\" data-testid=\"custom-link\">record-breaking streak of rainy days<\/a> and a lack of sunlight in September stunted growth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">With the problem expected to persist for Chinese cabbage and lettuce for some time, some companies have changed their offerings and expanded their list of suppliers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Prices have been soaring across the board, but particularly for leafy greens. The retail price for a kilogram of lettuce was 1,143 yen (S$9) from Oct 5 to 7, roughly double the average over the past five years, according to a food price survey released by the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry on Oct 16.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Chinese cabbage was up 70% at 501 yen, and cabbage was up 50% at 310 yen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cThe supply shortage is expected to continue at least through the end of the month,\u201d said a ministry official, and predicting when supply will return to normal is difficult.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The Royal Host restaurant chain switched the vegetables used in set meal salads and side dishes from lettuce to cabbage and kale on Oct 11.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">The chain had been using red leaf lettuce in salads and other dishes, but in mid-September, it had switched to regular lettuce due to supply shortages. The latest decision was made after the company determined that even securing a stable supply of regular lettuce was difficult.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cDepending on supply conditions, we may have to suspend sales of certain dishes,\u201d said a company spokesperson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">Mos Food Services, the operator of Mos Burger, is considering changing the vegetables used in some menu items if the shortage of green leaf lettuce persists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">McDonald\u2019s in Japan has expanded the regions from which it sources lettuce domestically and is also procuring lettuce from the United States, South Korea and Malaysia to maintain its offerings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text-primary font-tertiary-body-baseline-regular\" data-testid=\"article-paragraph-annotation-test-id\">\u201cAs extreme weather occurrences are on the rise, the restaurant industry will need to take more measures than ever before, such as diversifying supply sources and using vertical farms,\u201d said Daisuke Yamamoto of The Japan Research Institute. THE JAPAN NEWS\/ASIA NEWS NETWORK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TOKYO \u2013 Major restaurant chains in Japan are grappling with supply shortages and high prices for leafy greens,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-634969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}