Bubble tea shortage? Boba supplies dry up in US
- Ingredients like tapioca pearls, flavoured powders and syrups are stuck in a ‘huge bottleneck’ thanks to logistics issues during the coronavirus pandemic
- Supply has tightened for the last month and is not likely to let up until the end of April at the earliest
Your favourite bubble tea shop may not be serving its signature drink for a while as shipping delays are keeping some retailers from getting the supplies to make the sweet beverage.
The shortage started about a month ago, according to Oliver Yoon, the vice-president of sales and global marketing for Boba Direct, a Chicago-based nationwide supplier of bubble tea products.
US ports on the East and West Coasts have been overwhelmed for months as consumer spending has increased along with a bevy of logistical issues amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Boats, carrying tens of thousands of shipping containers, are waiting outside ports.
“It’s a perfect storm really,” Yoon said.
Bubble tea, which has exploded in popularity in recent years, is a Taiwanese milk tea drink with a variety of flavours that features chewy pearls of tapioca. Supply has been tightened for the last month, Yoon said, and it’s not likely to let up until the end of April at the earliest.
Bubble tea products like tapioca pearls, popping bobas, flavoured powders and syrups, and disposables, are all stuck in a “huge bottleneck,” he added.
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But it’s not just bubble tea. “It’s pretty much any kind of consumer product,” Yoon said.
Starbucks franchises, for example, aren’t able to fulfil customer orders of the new oat milk drink offerings and baristas are even reporting shortages of cups and syrups. Fitness gear, roller skates, and furniture, among other products also have been hampered.
One bubble tea shop owner named Alex Ou told the San Francisco Chronicle, which first reported on the shortage, that some consumers won’t buy a drink if there’s no boba. “They’re literally here for the boba,” he told the publication.
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But consumers just need to be patient, Yoon said. “This is temporary, not forever.”
For retailers selling bubble tea, they’re frustrated, too, he said.
“I get it; they’re a small business, and they’re trying to survive. We’re all in the same situation – just trying to survive,” he said.
“Covid[-19] really affected the situation with importing. No one anticipated what happened last year; it’s one of these domino effects later on in the future.”
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