McDonald’s Japan is facing a French fry crisis—as is the rest of the country.

Ongoing shipping labor disputes in several U.S.West Coast ports since October have lead to a French fry shortage in Japan. Earlier this month, chain restaurants in Japan began airlifting in emergency fries so customers wouldn’t go fry-less. 

Now, McDonald’s Japan has embarked on the emergency measure of only offering small-sized french fries to customers. But that may not be enough to solve the larger problem. McDonald’s Japan spokeswoman Kokoro Toyama tells Reuters,

“Unfortunately without this sales restriction step, we would run the danger of running out of fries at some of our stores around the end of the year or beginning of the new year.”

Toyama said the company, which has 3,100 stores in Japan, won’t be placing any limit on the number of small-sized fries a customer may buy. That’s probably a really bad idea, seeing that a group of teenagers in Korea once ordered $250 worth of fries in one sitting at McDonald’s.

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When will medium-sized and large-sized fries be back on McDonald’s menus in Japan? That remains unclear.

According to USDA estimates, about 93 percent of the potatoes that Japan imports are in the form of French fries. Within that number, the U.S. supplies about 80 percent of those French fries. Looks like those shipping labor disputes need to get resolved a.s.a.p.

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[via Reuters]