Dear MEL Topic Readers,
Thousands of Britain's 'fish and chip' shops could close within a year. Here's why
Fish and chips is a UK’s popular hot dish consisting of fried fish, usually cod or haddock, in crispy batter, served with chips (fried potatoes). It appeared in the UK in the 1860s to feed industrial workers and soon became popular. Even during World War II, unlike other essentials like tea, butter, and meat, fish and chips was exempt from the ration because it was important to feed workers and soldiers. It is considered Britain’s national dish and around 10,000 dedicated fish and chips, mostly small papa-and-mom shops, are currently in business across the country. Unfortunately, their businesses are in crisis because of the soaring costs of gas, oil, fish, and potatoes. On top of the accelerating inflation since last year, the supply chain of these key ingredients was broken when Russia invaded Ukraine. Nearly 40% of cod and haddock came from Russian waters and half of its sunflower oil was imported from Ukraine. As a major part of the supply is cut or reduced, the prices of their alternatives hike, such as fish from Iceland and Norway. Also, the price of palm oil, a popular alternative to sunflower oil, recently doubled as Indonesia, the world’s largest exporter, restricted exports to keep their domestic supplies. And of course, energy bills are rising higher and higher as the crisis continues. Since fish and chips is a popular dish for commoners, those shops aren’t raising their selling prices as much as their costs have increased. Now, the industry’s organization is worried that as many as a third of the nation’s fish and chips restaurants might close their doors.
Read the article and learn about UK’s national dish crisis.
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/16/business-food/fish-and-chips-britain-inflation/index.html
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