ASIA / PACIFIC
January 5, 2015
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
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VENDOR FAIR
February 25, 2015
McRATIONED. An order of small fries is seen at a McDonald’s restaurant in Tokyo. McDonald’s began ra-
tioning its fries December 17. It said prolonged labor negotiations with port workers on the U.S. west coast have
made it difficult to meet demand despite an emergency airlift of 1,000 tons of spuds and an extra shipment from
the U.S. east coast by sea. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
McDonald’s in Japan
limits orders of fries
By Elaine Kurtenbach
AP Business Writer
T
OKYO — Only small fries with
that? McDonald’s in Japan is
limiting the serving size of fries as
stocks run short due to labor disruptions
on the U.S. west coast.
McDonald’s began rationing its fries
December 17. It said prolonged labor
negotiations with port workers on the west
coast have made it difficult to meet
demand despite an emergency airlift of
1,000 tons of processed spuds and an extra
shipment from the U.S. east coast by sea.
Frozen french fries — ready for the deep
fryer — are a leading U.S. export. The
spuds are partially cooked and cut before
shipping.
Japanese consume more than 300,000
tons of french fries a year, mostly at
fast-food restaurants, and largely sourced
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from imports of frozen, processed potatoes
from America, according to U.S. figures.
December shipments were expected to be
just more than half the normal level,
Japanese newspapers reported.
But demand is rising as convenience
stores are increasingly also selling fries.
McDonald’s has 3,100 outlets in Japan.
It cut prices for set meals to compensate for
including only small fries.
Customers recently expressed disap-
pointment as they left a downtown Tokyo
McDonald’s outlet.
“The kids like the bigger sizes, like ‘M’
and ‘L,’ so it’s a shame,” said businessman
Kenichi Kuniki, 45.
Japan’s locally grown potatoes are most-
ly eaten fresh, rather than as fries, and
production has been declining for years.
But Japan enforces strict limits on where
and how fresh potatoes are imported.
Continued on page 7
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JANUARY 17 - 19, 2015
TERRIBLE TRAGEDY. Indonesian children hold candles to pray
for the victims of AirAsia Flight 8501 in Surabaya, Indonesia. Bad weather
has hindered efforts to recover victims and has sent wreckage drifting far
from the crash site as grieving relatives pray for strength to endure their
losses. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)
AirAsia’s CEO in spotlight
after Flight 8501 accident
By Eileen Ng
SI GN UP T O VOLUNT EER AT
W W W.UNI T EDWAY-PDX.ORG/ M LK
Life’s most persistent and urgent question is:
“W hat are you doing for others?”
The Associated Press
K
UALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — His airline empire
began, Tony Fernandes likes to say, with the
purchase of a bankrupt company for less than a
dollar. Now, after years of growth that made him the king
of Asian budget travel, the flamboyant Malaysian
businessman is facing the horror of the crash of an AirAsia
jet with 162 people on board.
Fernandes, who built AirAsia’s regional network on
cheap fares, a love of the spotlight, and occasionally pro-
vocative advertising — “There’s a new girl in town. She’s
twice the fun and half the price.” — was clearly exhausted
by the time he met reporters at the airport in Surabaya,
Indonesia, where the missing flight had taken off.
“We are very devastated by what has happened. It is
unbelievable,” he said. In an earlier tweet to his
employees, Fernandes said, “This is my worst nightmare.”
Fernandes pioneered regional low-cost air travel by
launching AirAsia in January 2002, growing it from two
planes to more than 180 by breaking the dominance of
national airlines and making flying affordable for the
millions of Asians entering the middle class. Today, he has
Continued on page 7
-M artin Luther King Jr.
United Way of the
Columbia-Willamette
A program of United Way
of the Columbia-Willamette
Mark your calendar!
The Year of the Sheep begins February 19, 2015!
The Asian Reporter’s Lunar New Year special issue will be published on Monday, February 16, 2015.
The submission deadline for this issue’s Events Calendar is Monday, February 2, 2015.