Fast food enthusiasts are warned to expect a subtle change in their favorite items due to the shortage of lettuce.
Leafy green has been in short supply in recent weeks, largely due to the weather.
Floods in New South Wales and Queensland have made a significant number of crops unviable.
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This, combined with the rising overall cost of food, forced the fast food giant KFC to make a change.
“We’ve come across a bit like an iceberg and are currently experiencing some disruptions in the lettuce supply chain due to the impacts of the recent floods in Queensland and NSW,” an update said on the website.
“This means you can see a temporary mixture of lettuce and cabbage at KFC restaurants in NSW, VIC, QLD, ACT and TAS during this shortage. If this isn’t your bag, click ‘Customize’ on your chosen product and remove the lettuce in the recipe.
“We are working with our multiple vendors to support them, but we expect the outages to continue in the coming days.”
Fast food enthusiasts are warned to expect a subtle change in their favorite items due to the shortage of lettuce. Archive image. Credit: AP
It is the latest in a series of changes that KFC has had to make in response to supply chain issues.
In January, stores were forced to reduce their menus due to a shortage of chicken.
“Due to problems with suppliers, we do not have original chicken, gingerbread, fillets or wings. Please check out the out-of-print stickers for available items,” a sign read.
Supply chains were disrupted due to the pandemic and close contact rules.
The shortage roughly coincided with the lifting of restrictions, meaning more people were infected with COVID and had to isolate themselves.
Now the closure of international borders due to the pandemic has led to a shortage of seasonal workers, close contact rules have decimated the workforce and the war in Ukraine has skyrocketed costs, including petrol for truckers.
An alert informing customers of lettuce shortages on the KFC website. Credit: KFC
Food prices have risen subsequently, with ABS figures released earlier this year showing that food prices rose 4.3 per cent during the year to March.
In an analysis of the data, agribusiness specialist Rabobank said the rise was the highest year-on-year rise in food price inflation since 2011.
Rabobank senior analyst Michael Harvey said horticulture was a major cause of rising food prices, with vegetable prices up 6.6 per cent and fruit prices up 4.9 percent more than the previous year.
“The higher cost of meat, seafood and dairy also contributed significantly to food price inflation during the quarter,” Harvey said.
Rabobank found that there was widespread price inflation in the “food complex”, with increases recorded in all major categories of foodstuffs.