American food manufacturer Kraft is offering to pay people not to make cheesecake this year as a dessert.
On Wednesday, the maker of Philadelphia Cream Cheese said that it has plans to pay 18,000 shoppers $20 each to purchase other desserts or dessert ingredients due to the cream cheese supply issues across the US.
The company suggested that people make things like cookies or brownies instead.
According to the website, for customers to get the prize, they have to sign up for a promotion that begins at noon on December 17.
Then, they have to enter a receipt for the dessert purchase between December 17 and Christmas Eve.
This news comes as cream cheese is starting to become more difficult to come across in the nation. In 2020, lockdown baking increased the demand for cream cheese which left many suppliers trying their best to keep up.
According to Bloomberg, Wisconsin-based company Schreiber Foods was closed for days after facing a cyberattack in October.
Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter
Scheiber Foods has a cream cheese business and is responsible for making cheese slices for many of the top burger chains in America.
Kraft also noted that shortages in manufacturing workers, packaging supplies and truck drivers are also some of the reasons for the lack of surplus.
The shortage of cream cheese has also affected local restaurants.
In a CNN report, Junior’s Cheesecake restaurant chain that originated in Brooklyn, New York, had no choice but to occasionally suspend the production of cheesecake after Kraft deliveries started to cease.
CNN also noted that the prices for cream cheese have skyrocketed 18 per cent from 2019 to 2020 and have remained high.
The New York Times also noted this month that the high prices and shortages in cream cheese had hurt New York bagel shops. Some of the shop owners even had to voyage all the way to New Jersey to get the cream cheese.
The cream cheese shortage is one of the several supply chain problems that have been prevalent in the country for months since the coronavirus pandemic.
