Fujifilm film prices are going up globally by at least 30% on April 1st – No joke

Fujifilm has announced that it will be implementing “a worldwide pricing revision for its photographic films and photographic papers”. Fujifilm says that they’ve been facing the rising cost of film and logistics. They say that they’ve absorbed some of the costs through structural reforms, but can not risk sacrificing the quality of their product, so prices are going up.

Given how few films Fujifilm produces these days, it doesn’t seem like much of a surprise that their costs are going up. The economies of scale work both ways. Increase production, costs go down. Decrease production, costs go up. And when you start killing off many of your most loved film products, production is definitely going to go down.

Fujifilm colour negative and colour reversal film, as well as Quick Snap and Control Strips are going to see a minimum increase of 30%.  And the whole line of Fujifilm photographic paper will increase by “a double-digit percentage”. So, anywhere between 10% and 99%. The exact wording from the Fujifilm press release states…

1. Products and percent increase
   Photographic film :
   Color Negative Film, Color Reversal Film, Quick Snap, Control Strips
   The minimum increase is expected to 30%
   Photographic paper :
   All of Photographic paper
   The minimum increase is a double-digit percentage.
2. Date of price increase
   Effective from April 1st, 2019 onward
   
   * Products, timing and percent increase may vary depending on market and regions.

Market demand will continue to be studied, Fujifilm says, and they will make adjustments to their “product assortment” as dictated by customers and market conditions. I think this means they’re preparing to kill off more film stock.

There’s no mention of Fuji Instax “Instant Film” or if they will be affected by this price increase.