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Small restaurants stockpile food delivery containers as war drives up plastic prices

Published: 01 Apr. 2026, 18:36 Updated: 01 Apr. 2026, 19:46

Boxes of delivery containers are piled up at a shop owned by a small business owner in this photo uploaded to an online forum [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Smaller restaurants are stockpiling food delivery containers as supply shortages and sharp price hikes triggered by the war in the Middle East begin to bite.

Major plastic container manufacturers announced that they would raise prices by more than 30 percent starting Wednesday, according to the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprises (KFME) on the same day. Industry estimates suggest that more than 70 percent of restaurants now offer delivery services simultaneously.

“The burden has grown so much that small business owners are saying that prices are jumping each night,” said Song Chi-young, head of the KFME. “Many products are already sold out on online marketplaces, making them difficult to obtain.”

Posts about bulk purchases of delivery containers are spreading in online communities for small business owners.

One Korean food-delivery restaurant owner shared a photo of stacks of containers and disposable cutlery sets online.

“I even broke my savings account and spent 8.5 million won [$5,670] on delivery containers because I was afraid I might not be able to keep my business running,” the owner said in the online post.

Boxes of delivery containers are piled up at a shop owned by a small business owner in this photo uploaded to an online forum [SCREEN CAPTURE]

“For those in the food service industry, delivery containers are directly tied to our livelihoods — it’s on a completely different level from stockpiling standard garbage bags,” said a restaurant owner in Seoul.

“Container prices are rising by tens of thousands of won per box in just a single day,” said another restaurant owner. “Thinking that today is the cheapest it will be, I bought in bulk and am now storing them at home because there’s no space at the restaurant.”

“I saw other business owners around me buying in large quantities, so I also made additional purchases,” said a cafe owner.

Online sellers of delivery containers posted a wave of price increase notices on Wednesday, with some items already sold out. Prices may continue to rise unless supply stabilizes, according to industry officials.

“A shortage of naphtha, a key raw material, is reducing the production of plastic containers and vinyl packaging,” an industry source said.

Boxes of delivery containers are piled up at a shop owned by a small business owner in this photo uploaded to an online forum [JOONGANG ILBO]

Small business owners are urging the government and delivery platforms to introduce support measures. Some have called for the inclusion of packaging container costs — in addition to fuel expenses — in management stabilization voucher programs.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups held a meeting with small business owners earlier on Wednesday to discuss supply issues surrounding packaging containers.

However, some small businesses criticized the process.

“The meeting was announced abruptly on Tuesday, and it overlapped with business preparation hours, making it difficult for on-the-ground voices to be fully reflected,” a business owner said.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY LIM SUN-YOUNG [[email protected]]