A supply chain crisis is forcing Kentucky Fried Chicken to stop advertising boneless chicken offerings on American television.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Kevin Hochman, president of KFC, said that while the company currently has enough to meet demand, it cannot “aggressively promote” its chicken offerings on television.
“In terms of advertising and promotion, we will focus on the things that we have in abundance Chicken Shortages in the USA,” he said, adding that bone-in chicken is more available, according to Bloomberg. A KFC spokesperson in the US reiterated this in a statement to Insider.
He said the deboned chicken used in chicken tenders was hit the hardest by delays and shortages because it requires more processing and therefore more labor.
KFC is among a large group of restaurants and retailers facing product shortages and delays.
Last month, his UK business informed customers that some items were out of stock and their packaging might look different when they visited.
Other restaurant owners have complained about high poultry prices. Greg Doyle, co-owner of Duff’s Famous Wings in Buffalo, New York, told Fox Business that the price of chicken wings for his suppliers increased 99%.
Doyle blamed this price hike on labor shortages.
“On chicken wing farms in America, it’s hard to retain and hire employees,” he said. “When that happens, they can’t process the birds fast enough, they have to feed them more, feed costs go up, the birds get too big, and they can’t process the birds and let them out.”
The owner of an eight-restaurant chain in Texas told Insider’s Anna Cobain that she was paying double to order 50 pounds of chicken this summer, compared to what she would have been paying before the pandemic.
Owner Garrett Reed said his suppliers blamed the huge price increases on labor shortages. “The labor shortage is real, and it’s not just about the day-to-day tasks in the store, it’s really affecting us down the supply chain,” he said.
“We talk to our chicken sellers and tell them why this is the case. They say very well that our slaughterhouses are only 50% functional,” he added.