At the height of the Corona plague when cinemas became de facto cemeteries and were closed for long months, huge stockpiles of popcorn destined for viewers in U.S. cinemas accumulated when there was nothing to do with them.
Now, almost ironically, with the reopening and accelerating momentum of U.S. theaters and the influx of hundreds of thousands of viewers into theaters, the opposite problem has arisen: a fear of a severe shortage of the beloved snack.
Similar to other shortages, the difficulties in supplying popcorn, the Wall Street Journal reported, come from a number of factors including rising prices for bites that bite farmers' profits, a shortage of farmers who can transport corn kernels and even problems with the supply of shell material that protects popcorn bags. "Political stability in the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia that will lead to rising prices."
"The supply of popcorn will be tight and sparse," confirmed Norm Krug, CEO of Preferred Popcorn. "But with the glue that seals the box in which the oil is transported," he added, talking about the complexity that accompanies the popcorn production process, while other production managers and cinemas also reported increasing difficulty in obtaining the packaging in which the popcorn is served in cinemas.
"The fear is that farmers will choose to grow more profitable crops. We are already paying them much more for the corn kernels than before," they said.
The fear of shortage has become a factor that deprives movie theater owners who fear a drop in profits, to the point that they are willing to buy surplus stock from their competitors even those who still come with their logo the main thing they will have to fill the machines and stomachs of hungry viewers.
"It's a big mess," they concluded in despair.
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