Calbee, Japan’s answer to Frito-Lay with an enormous product lineup ranging from pizza-flavored potato chips to low-carb granola, is raising prices again as companies struggle to absorb costs that are climbing at the fastest clip in years.
The Tokyo-based company said in a statement Wednesday it will raise the prices of snacks and cereals in Japan by between 5% and 20% from September because of increasing material costs. Its shares advanced as much as 5.1% in Tokyo after the announcement, their biggest intraday gain in more than a month.
While paying more for food is a worldwide phenomenon, it’s an especially sensitive topic in Japan, where stagnant wages make it hard for households to swallow a rush of price hikes for everything from burgers to beer. The yen’s slide to a 24-year low against the dollar is also exacerbating price pressures for the resource-poor archipelago, which is heavily reliant on imports for energy and food.
The popularity of the snack-maker, whose largest shareholder is PepsiCo, reaches beyond the supermarket aisle. Its regional souvenirs of limited-edition snacks ranging from octopus-ball flavored potato sticks in Osaka or taco-rice flavored ones in a nod to a popular dish in Okinawa Prefecture are also hugely popular and will cost more come fall, the company said.
The company has already raised prices several times this year due to a bad potato crop and higher material costs. To the dismay of chip lovers, it also had to cut down bag sizes.
Smaller rival Koike-ya also announced price increases this month, including for their popular spicy and sour product line that will take effect in September.
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