McDonald’s, 7-Eleven and mayonnaise maker Kewpie are just some of the firms in Japan contending with the worst-ever global outbreak of bird flu.
Of 100 listed restaurant companies in Japan, 18 had suspended egg-related items as of Sunday, according to Teikoku Databank.
Fewer hens led to a near doubling in the wholesale price of the farm staple last month to ￥327 (US$2.38) from a year earlier, the research firm said on Tuesday.
Photo: Bloomberg
That means McDonald’s Holdings Co Japan Ltd’s Teritama Muffin is off the menu.
The breakfast sandwich, which combines egg, sausage and teriyaki sauce, is typically offered in spring each year.
The fast-food giant has also warned it could temporarily halt sales of hamburgers that contain eggs if supply disruptions persist.
OUTBREAKS
Japan is just one of many countries wrestling with an outbreak that has sent egg prices skyrocketing in the US and caused a shortage of baby chicks in China.
At a time of heightened inflation fears around the globe, the unprecedented spread of the disease is yet another reminder of the grim impact of pandemics on markets for food.
Japan confirmed its first case in October last year, beginning the earliest bird flu season the country has seen, the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said.
The disease has spread to more than half of the nation’s prefectures, forcing the cull of about 15 million birds, the ministry said.
7-Eleven, owned by Seven & i Holdings Co and one of the many convenience stores ubiquitous across Japan, suspended the sale of some egg products in January.
VEGGIE SWAP
Other measures have included swapping in vegetables for eggs in its tuna sandwiches, as well as increasing the portion of meat in its ham and egg offering.
Condiment-makers Kewpie Corp and Ajinomoto Co have said they would raise prices from next month for products like mayo and tartar sauce amid the surge in costs of one of their key ingredients.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
The DBS Foundation yesterday announced the launch of two flagship programs, “Silver Motion” and “Happier Caregiver, Healthier Seniors,” in partnership with CCILU Ltd, Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation and the Garden of Hope Foundation to help Taiwan face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The foundation said it would invest S$4.91 million (US$3.8 million) over three years to foster inclusion and resilience in an aging society. “Aging may bring challenges, but it also brings opportunities. With many Asian markets rapidly becoming super-aged, the DBS Foundation is working with a regional ecosystem of like-minded partners across the private, public and people sectors
BREAKTHROUGH TECH: Powertech expects its fan-out PLP system to become mainstream, saying it can offer three-times greater production throughput Chip packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) plans to more than double its capital expenditures next year to more than NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) as demand for its new panel-level packaging (PLP) technology, primarily used in chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has greatly exceeded what it can supply. A significant portion of the budget, about US$1 billion, would be earmarked for fan-out PLP technology, Powertech told investors yesterday. Its heavy investment in fan-out PLP technology over the past 10 years is expected to bear fruit in 2027 after the technology enters volume production, it said, adding that the tech would
RSS