Fish and chip day: London chippies warn of sky-rocketing prices due to Ukraine war

Fish and chip shops across London have warned that prices will continue to sky-rocket as chippies feel the squeeze from the cost of living crisis and the Ukraine war.

The invasion has meant there is a shortage of cod and haddock - from Russia - and sunflower oil, much a which is imported from Ukraine.

Recently, the National Federation of Fish Friers has said that this could cause a third of chippies nationwide to close.

And the capital’s fish and chip shops are feeling the squeeze.

Ash, manager of Hobson’s Fish and Chips, in Porchester Street, Paddington, said: “Prices have gone through the roof.”

The London chippie has recently had to put their prices up - and has not printed out new menus as it expect prices to rise again soon.

Ash added: “Prices for fish have gone up by about £80 or £90 a box in the last two years, and we expect it to go up to £100 more a box in the next week or two.

“There isn’t much that ministers can do, as this is a world thing.

“However, they could help out fishing fleets in the UK to get larger ships.”

This would mean that suppliers in the UK could depend more on their own fleets, rather than exports from other parts of the world.

The UK is very dependent on seafood from Russia - who are the world leaders in exports of cod and potato fertiliser, which is used to make chips.

However, due to the invasion of Ukraine, the government is looking to put sanctions on Russian whitefish.

Supplies of sunflower oil have also been disrupted, as half of this comes from Ukraine.

Hobson’s uses rapeseed oil, which has also doubled in price, due to demand based on the shortage of sunflower oil.

CompanyDebt, an insolvency service, has released a graph showing the cost increase of a traditional fish and chip meal in the last year.

The price for cod and haddock has seen a 75% cost increase, chips a 30% increase, sunflower oil a 60% increase, packaging a 45% increase and batter a 40% increase.

Mushy peas have seen a whopping 120% cost increase, according to the data by CompanyDebt.

Andrew Crook, the president of the National Federation of Fish Friers, has labelled the crisis “the most dangerous threat to the industry in 160 years”.

He said: “It’s already terrifying.

“I’m 22 years in the industry and I’ve been through a lot of scares.

“But we’ve got a crisis on a crisis and now the rise to minimum wage and potential return to 20% VAT.

“I’ve never seen anything like it, it’s everything all at once.”