‘When you are unemployed, which is to say when you are underfed, harassed, bored, and miserable, you don't want to eat dull wholesome food. You want something a little bit 'tasty'. There is always some cheaply pleasant thing to tempt you. Let's have three pennorth of chips!’
George Orwell The Road to Wigan Pier
‘Fish and chips, a traditional British meal valued for its affordability, has seen a significant increase in price over the past five years, several UK media outlets reported citing data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
According to July figures, the cost of fish and chips has surged by around 52% to nearly £10 ($13) per serving from an average of £6.5 in July 2019. According to the ONS, the cost of the popular dish has seen the largest increase over the reporting period in comparison to pizza, kebabs, and Indian and Chinese food.
According to industry representatives who spoke to the BBC, a mix of increased energy and labor costs, poor potato harvests due to bad weather, and Ukraine-related sanctions on Russia, the world’s leading cod producer, were the major drivers behind the spike.
London placed a 35% tariff on seafood from Russia shortly after the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, which immediately affected the cost of fish and chips, as around a third of Britain’s white fish at the time came from Russia.
Western sanctions and Russia’s countermeasures also affected energy supplies, which triggered a rise in energy costs for British businesses. As a result, the price of fish and chips spiked by 19% by March 2023. More recently, Russia has also denied the UK’s fishing vessels access to its Arctic fishing grounds in the Barents Sea, ending the Fisheries Agreement signed in 1956 and further affecting prices.
On top of this, extreme weather conditions over the past year have jeopardized potato harvests, which also affects the cost of fish and chips. According to the latest Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs’ Agricultural Price Index (API), in the 12 months to May 2024, potato prices posted the largest increase among UK agricultural goods, surging 4.1%.
Industry representatives warn that fish and chips is becoming less affordable, and may soon lose its status as an iconic British dish.
“We’ve had the perfect storm of events in terms of cost pressures. It’s not a cheap meal anymore,” Jon Long of Long John’s Fish and Chips in Dorset told the news outlet, adding that the current economic climate is the “toughest set of conditions” he has seen in the past three decades.
“People think that fish and chips is a cheap meal and it just isn’t. People are prepared to pay £15-20 for a pizza but they’re not prepared to pay it for a portion of fish and chips,” Angela Cartwright, the owner of Kingfisher Fish Bar in Salford, said.’
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