McDonald’s pulled out of Russia following a Western backlash against Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine, which included a barrage of economic sanctions, and sold all its restaurants to a local licensee in May. The new ownership, however, is now having trouble securing potato supplies, blaming a poor harvest in Russia and difficulty importing potatoes due to supply chain disruptions. Under the new name Vkusno & tochka, or “Delicious and Ending,” the restaurants began reopening on June 12 and sold nearly 120,000 burgers that day. But after customers last week started posting photos of menus without fries, Vkusno & tochka said it will leave potatoes and fries off the menus of some of its newly opened restaurants until the fall. He said that while for years he had focused on buying ingredients locally, it was now “impossible to import from markets that might have become temporary potato suppliers”. “Potatoes will fully return to the chain’s menu at the beginning of the next harvest year, in the fall of 2022,” it said. The shortage underscores the challenges facing Russian businesses as sanctions over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine and supply chain disruptions complicate the import of goods. Vkusno & tochka CEO Oleg Paroev told Reuters last month that “a significant percentage” of the ingredients come from abroad. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Despite Vkusno & tochka’s problems, the Russian Ministry of Agriculture said last week that the potato harvest will be larger than last year and that the market is “fully supplied with potatoes, including processed potatoes.” “The new crop is arriving now, which rules out the possibility of a shortage,” he said.
