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It was one of the hardships of the hard lockdown and it had lovers of the sticky black spread up in arms. Was it not enough that we were in the midst of a pandemic? Did we need to be without our Marmite too?
Then it was back on the shelves and lovers rejoiced. Mornings just weren’t mornings without biting into a piece of Marmite toast. Some people were so desperate for their pot of “black gold” they resorted to buying half-eaten jars from friends and neighbours.
But now there’s a shortage again – the second crisis in eight months. The problem once again is a shortage of yeast, the main ingredient in the black stuff some love and others loathe. In hard lockdown, when booze was banned for weeks on end, people bought yeast like no one’s business to brew their own backyard beer.
READ MORE | Meet the South African who broke the Guiness World Record for eating Marmite
The market recovered to some extent when bottle store doors reopened but Snowy Kruger, marketing manager at PepsiCo SSA – the company that manufactures Marmite – says yeast is still in short supply.
“We’re still low on supply of good-quality brewer’s years and that’s why less Marmite is being produced,” she said in a statement.
But hopefully the Marmiteless days will soon be a thing of the past.
Snowy says the problem should soon be solved and supply will be sufficient by
July.
Which will be music to the ears of fans like Pieter Schoombee.
“Ever since I was a child, I’ve been eating Marmite on my toast every morning,” he says. “Now I’d rather skip breakfast – because what’s the point?”
Dark days indeed.
