Of all the many stories circulating about the ripple effects of the conflict in the Middle East, one in particular caught my attention recently. Japanese snack giant, Calbee, has announced that it is temporarily switching to black and white packaging for some of its flagship products, including its potato chip brands, due to “supply instability affecting raw materials amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East”. As alluded to in my comment last month, the country is increasingly concerned about supplies of naphtha – a key ingredient in ink and plastics – and the shortage of this raw material has seemingly claimed another victim in the food sector (in early May, Japanese foodmaker, Mizkan, suspended sales of some of its products entirely due to a shortage of polystyrene containers).
Whether Calbee has made this decision in order to help maintain a steady supply of products (as it claims), or it is simply a bold marketing gimmick (as many experts suspect), it has brought the wider consequences of the conflict into the public realm. The story resonated with me for a couple of reasons. Of course, I love potato chips, and the experts are always telling us that we ‘eat with our eyes’, so I have some concern that our Japanese friends may find their favourite snacks a little less appetising. But I also work in the publishing sector and – unlike many publishing houses who have long abandoned print in favour of digital-only magazines – we remain committed to producing a quality print publication for our readers each month. If you’re reading this in a print edition of the magazine – we do, of course, also offer a digital option – you may not initially notice the glossy covers, perfect binding, and four-colour process printing on Woodforce silk reel. But take one aspect of that away and you significantly detract from the overall look and feel of the product. We’ve drained the colour from this page to offer a glimpse of what may lie ahead in a world of constrained naphtha supplies.
At a time when the world is undergoing rapid advances in AI and digitalisation, and witnessing other astonishing technological innovations – as can be seen in the pages of this issue of Hydrocarbon Engineering – it is somewhat paradoxical that we are simultaneously becoming vulnerable to disruptions that could force simpler, more constrained ways of living and producing goods.
The Calbee example serves as a warning of what lies ahead should the conflict in the Middle East not be resolved in the near future. While headlines may focus on monochrome snack packaging, surging fuel prices, and potential summer holiday chaos, the consequences will be far graver should we witness a prolonged conflict and sustained disruption to oil and gas supplies. Naphtha, as just one example, is an essential component in the production of plastics, fuels, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and countless everyday goods that industries around the world rely upon. Modern economies are built upon stable oil and gas supply chains in ways that most consumers rarely notice – until disruptions begin to affect the products and services they depend upon every day.
The shift to monochrome packaging may appear trivial or even amusing on the surface, but it could serve as a visible sign of much larger disruptions still to come.
