There is a lack of ketchup in American restaurants due to the coronavirus

Demand for ketchup exceeded US supply, one of the reasons is the coronavirus pandemic. Fast food chains have always added ketchup bags to their food. Traditional restaurants placed bottles with ketchup on the tables, or poured it into a bowl for customers. However, due to the pandemic, some restaurants decided not to use the bottles and preferred single-use bags. And the increase in demand has caused prices to rise, with the price of ketchup bags rising 13 percent since January 2020. The fact that the demand for ketchup is actually higher than current stocks was also confirmed by the president of Kraft Heinz, which dominates the American ketchup market. The company plans to open two more production lines in April, which should increase production by 25 percent. Representatives of the American fast food company Long John Silver’s mentioned that due to increased demand and the fact that individual packages are more expensive than bottles, they had to spend extraordinarily $ 500,000 on ketchup. Due to the lack of supplies, restaurants or fast foods often also have to offer their customers ketchups from other brands that they do not normally use. And it's not just bags in restaurants. Fox News also points out that during the pandemic, people started cooking at home and retail sales of ketchup in 2020 increased by 15 percent compared to 2019. Ketchup is the latest product to face supply chain problems due to the pandemic. At the beginning of the pandemic, for example, many Americans tried to bake homemade bread, so there was often a shortage of flour in stores. In many parts of the country, toilet paper also ran out in the early days of the outbreak, as many people bought it in bulk in preparation for restrictive measures.