• McDonald’s left Russia in May and sold all its outlets to a local licensee.
• CEO Oleg Paroev claims there will be a French fry shortage until the fall.
• Subpar potato harvest and supply chain issues are to blame, he told RBC TV.

The leader of the organisation currently in charge of the former McDonald’s restaurant chain in Russia told RBC TV that French fry manufacturers are refusing to supply the nation and that attempts to enhance domestic processing are tough.

Following a wave of economic sanctions imposed by the West in response to Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, McDonald’s left Russia and in May sold all of its outlets to a local licensee.

On June 12, restaurants started operating under the new moniker Vkusno & tochka, or “Tasty and that’s it.” According to CEO Oleg Paroev, the chain sold around 120,000 hamburgers on the first day of business.

Unmute
High quality standards will be upheld or even improved, and customers wouldn’t notice much of a difference, the new ownership was quick to emphasise. Since then, it has been compelled to acknowledge that there would be a French fry shortage until the fall, which it attributes to a subpar Russian harvest and supply chain issues. View More

What has recently happened, according to Paroev, is that many foreign businesses—I would even say all big producers of fries—have refused to ship this product to Russia because of well-known occurrences.

Paroev claimed that five or six large corporations, whose corporate headquarters are headquartered in hostile countries, had refused to supply Russia since they own plants that manufacture fries in both friendly and hostile nations.

Russia views as “unfriendly” those that have placed sanctions on it due to its behaviour in the Ukraine.

Due to the fact that there are so few businesses in Russia that can prepare potatoes for French fries, Paroev claimed there was a lack of the particular potatoes required for French fries in this year’s harvest and that other problems could occur.