A shortage of potatoes is presenting a growing problem for that world that heavily consumes french fries and chips.
A number of popular food items, including marmite and cream cheese, have faced scarcities because of supply chain disruptions wrought by the pandemic and extreme weather. Potatoes are the latest to join the list, becoming unevenly available in some countries and fast-food chains because of a confluence of factors.
In Japan, McDonald's locations stopped offering large and medium-size french fry orders last month, after pandemic-related supply chain issues and floods in the Port of Vancouver delayed potato shipments.
Days later, South Africa's leading makers of potato chips warned that potatoes were in short supply after a hard frost and excessive rains led to low local yields, on top of global sourcing shortages.
In Kenya this month, Kentucky Fried Chicken locations struck french fries, known locally as chips, from the menus as virus-related shipping delays held up containers full of potatoes.
"You love our chips a little too much, and we've run out," KFC Kenya tweeted Monday. "Sorry!"
But other Kenyan fast-food restaurants were able to offer the foods.
"We have enough fries for everyone," Kenya's Burger King wrote Tuesday in an Instagram post.
Beyond the inconvenience, the shortage sparked some anger among Kenyans over KFC's reliance on imports instead of locally grown potatoes, which are in their harvest season.
KFC's chief executive for East Africa, Jacques Theunissen, told Kenya's Business Daily that the company could not easily switch to Kenyan potatoes because of global quality standards.
"All suppliers need to go through the global QA [quality assurance] approval process, and we cannot bypass that even if we run out, to ensure that our food is safe for consumption by our customers," he said.
Some critics called for a KFC boycott on social media and asked why the company had not sought approval for local suppliers from the start.
National Potato Council of Kenya chief executive Wachira Kaguongo told local media that the country's farmers produce 62 varieties of potatoes and that "with the proper arrangement, proper planning," they could supply KFC.
Even without supply chain issues, potato shortages crop up from time to time because of bad weather, blights or labor disputes.