Shortage of mochi ingredients driving up costs for the local New Year’s holiday staple

By Kristen Consillio

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    HONOLULU (KITV) — It’s a sweet tradition that a kama’aina business is struggling to continue — scrambling to find ingredients that cost much more than they did a year ago.

But making mochi to ring in the new year is something the family that runs Fujiya Hawaii takes to heart.

“Typically on New Year’s you eat mochi for prosperity and longevity just with your family,” said Alyssa Young, who works at Fujiya Hawaii. “Everyone eats mochi even if you’re not Japanese. So I think because it’s such an important thing for people, it makes it more on our end wanting to do it.”

Workers at Fujiya Hawaii were busy making 24,000 chichi dango and stuffed mochi for the New Year’s holiday. But it’s come at a significant cost for the family-run business.

“Prices have been double for a lot of things,” she said. “We’re trying to still keep that low price costs for customers so that it still makes people want to come in and want to have our mochi because you don’t want it to be too pricey for them.”

That’s why they’re only increasing the price of their stuffed mochi by a dime.

Rising production costs are being driven by a shortage of rice flour, cane sugar and other ingredients that go into the new year’s staple.

“We’ve been struggling to even find peanut butter for peanut butter mochi. Strawberries have been in short supply as well,” Young added. “So everything that we need for mochi has been really hard to find.”

Supply-chain issues — due in part to COVID-19, droughts and storms across the country — are still plaguing local businesses, making it harder to keep up with the demand.

“I’ve heard that it’s hard to get mochi at this time of the year, especially with the prices going up and everything. But regardless of the price I’m still purchasing,” said customer Nora Ippongi. “We’ll still buy it because it’s a tradition.”

And its their loyal customers who are helping the family keep the tradition alive.

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