A cafe in Far North Queensland has become so desperate for toilet paper that it is offering to trade coffee for some precious rolls.

Supermarket shelves around the country have been stripped bare of toilet rolls due to panic buying over coronavirus concerns, prompting retailers to limit sales and authorities to call for calm.

On Monday, Jaques Coffee Plantation in Mareeba discovered it was running low on loo rolls at its cafe-restaurant and its suppliers were out of stock.

"It was a pretty crappy situation when the staff informed me they'd contacted three or four of our local suppliers and they're all sold out of toilet paper as well," general manager Jason Jaques said.

"This is wholesale suppliers too, not just supermarkets which I've sort of been laughing at."

Mr Jaques turned to social media to replenish supplies in the interim, offering to exchange a takeaway coffee for three rolls of toilet paper, or a one-kilogram bag of beans for a pack of 36 rolls.

Jason Jaques (left) says he became aware of the "crappy situation" when he arrived at work on Monday. ( Supplied )

"I know toilet paper's out there, people are hoarding it, and I thought we could see if we could get a little bit off them ... see who will bring some of the precious toilet paper," he said.

"We obviously need to get more, and we've been promised more by suppliers, but it's going to start getting critical.

"We were starting to look at newspapers, paperbark trees or even coffee leaves — that's how comical it became."

But despite the bargain on offer — a $42 bag of coffee in return for a 36-pack of toilet paper retailing at around $16 — no customers took it up.

"It's been very interesting to see that nobody wants to part with it, which is even more interesting and funnier," Mr Jaques said.

After a 24-hour wait, some regular patrons from nearby Camp Paterson, which runs school camps, traded nine rolls for three takeaway coffees.

Camp manager Scott Mahaffey said he saw the callout and thought it was a joke.

"I thought it was a bit of fun there, so my wife was at the shopping centre and saw some toilet paper, so she thought she'd take it along to Jaques and just see what they'd say when she walked through the door," he said.

"They actually really needed toilet paper. The nine-pack might last them a day or so, hopefully.

"It's crazy the toilet paper thing's still going around ... people get desperate, I suppose, when they need to go to the toilet."

Mr Jaques said more toilet rolls had since come in.

"We had a young girl walk in with another nine-pack and she didn't actually want anything for it, just a nice thing to do."

He said he expected some toilet paper to be delivered in the coming days and would continue the bartering scheme until he had enough rolls at the cafe.

"They go through a few rolls. That's part of the daily use here. Coffee, it keeps some people regular and stuff, so they do go hand in hand.

"It's like toilet paper's a commodity in Australia now — that's how ridiculous it's got — but we can certainly see the funny side of it as well."