‘Shops will close’: soaring cost of potatoes batters British chippies

theguardian.com:

Whether it’s fried, baked or mashed, potatoes have traditionally been a low-cost staple food in the UK – but not any more.

A surge in costs is clobbering high street chippies, while in the supermarket, oven chips and the once humble baking potato are casualties of soaring grocery prices.

Some fish and chip shops could opt to close after the cost of 25kg sacks more than doubled to £20, said Andrew Crook, who speaks for the industry as the president of the National Federation of Fish Friers.

“People might just shut their shop due to all the other costs as well,” he said. “They were barely keeping their heads above water, so this is going to be a step too far. Some shops will close until potato prices settle down but some it may put under.”

While figures this week revealed that the steadying of energy costs after a period of big increases had brought the UK’s annual inflation rate back down to 8.7% last month, food and drink prices are still rising at the fastest pace in more than 40 years, up 19% in the 12 months to April.

Chippies buy potatoes in smaller quantities on the open market, so are more exposed to price moves than retailers and food manufacturers who secure long-term contracts.

Even before this new pressure, official data had revealed that the price of a fish supper in the UK had risen to an average of £9 – up £1.44, or almost a fifth, compared with a year earlier – with shop owners hit by rocketing costs for fish, cooking oil and the electricity that powers the fryers.

With rising energy, labour and ingredient costs affecting the whole food industry – and last year’s UK potato crop smaller than usual in part because of last summer’s drought – a snapshot of supermarket prices reveals the amount they are charging for