Posted on 01/16/2024 5:56:45 PM PST by Red Badger
Supply chain snags are driving up the prices for fish and chips. As many as half of the U.K.’s “chippies” could shut down.
HASTINGS, England — Ever since she was old enough to walk, Terrilea Coglan was climbing aboard fishing boats that set sail each morning from the rocky beachfront of Hastings to harvest the key ingredient in Britain’s most iconic dish: fish and chips.
The day’s catch travels just a short way from the boats up to the seaside fish and chips shops, or “chippies,” that pride themselves as much in the freshness of the fish as in the secret recipes for their gooey batter.
Coglan’s parents and grandparents were in the fish trade, and now her sons are, too. But these days Coglan fears they may be the last.
“It’s our way of life,” says Coglan, leaning against a fishing boat during a break from hawking filets at her beachside kiosk. “It’s in my blood. It’s part of me. And it’s quite sad to think that it might not be here for much longer.”
All along the British coast, towns like Hastings are being squeezed by a cost-of-living crisis that’s hit the supply chain behind fish and chips, pushing up prices beyond what some are willing to pay for a humble, if comforting, weeknight meal.
The cost of diesel to power the fishing boats, the sunflower oil to fry the fish and the electricity to run the friers have all skyrocketed as a consequence of the war in Ukraine, figures from the U.K.’s Office of National Statistics show.
Fish that Coglan used to sell for a couple of British pounds (about $2) per bag now go for a couple of pounds per fish. Coglan says her customers complain constantly. Recently, the dwindling revenues forced her to get a second job, also in fish, as a salesperson at another monger’s shop.
“It’s always been a cheap thing, fish, and now it’s just really not,” she said.
Over the next few years, the National Federation of Fish Friers, which represents “chippies,” predicts that a third of the U.K.’s roughly 10,500 chippies may close for good, while the company Sarson’s, which makes the malt vinegar served ubiquitously alongside the fried fish, has predicted as many as half could shutter.
The high prices are threatening a billion-dollar business and a staple of the British menu: Every year, Brits eat more than 382 million orders of fish and chips, the federation says.
In an interview, Andrew Crook, the federation’s president, said that while energy prices have started to level off, ingredients are still hammering restaurant budgets. He said chippies are now buying cod for prices two-thirds more expensive than what they were before the Ukraine war, while a sack of potatoes costs double what it did.
It’s a daily struggle for cafes like Maggie’s, tucked in between old fishing huts just steps from the fish market. The restaurant has been a fixture of the Hastings fish and chips scene for decades, and when the doors open at noon, the smell of crisp, golden-brown fish wafts out of the door and greets the line of locals and tourists waiting on the staircase for a table.
Lionel Copley, the restaurant’s co-owner, says costs for his ingredients have gone up 30% to 40%, forcing the restaurant to up its prices. A plate of cod and chips eaten in store now goes for 14.90 British pounds (about $18), putting it out of reach for many looking for a cheap weekday meal.
“Some of the competitors are reducing their hours. Some are reducing the quality, staffing levels,” Copley says. “Everybody’s trying to make some sort of cuts, so not to pass it on to a customer.”
In recent months, chippies and their supporters have begun a campaign to “Save the chippies,” urging customers to keep supporting their local fish and chips joint even if the fried meal costs a bit more than it used to. Sarson’s, the vinegar maker, launched a “Fryday” promotion to reimburse 50 customers each Friday for a fish and chips purchase that they promote on social media.
As he doled out tables to a line of waiting diners during the lunchtime rush, Copley said he was hard-pressed to define what British culinary culture would look like if the chippies disappeared.
“It’s like Sunday lunches, fish and chips, and going down to the pub,” Copley said. “It’s what we do.”
CORRECTION (Jan. 3, 2024, 8:00 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article misspelled the last name of Maggie’s co-owner. He is Lionel Copley, not Cobley.
The only fish I've ever eaten is tuna fish salad sandwiches, and tuna melts. Been to England twice, but never tried fish and chips. From what I understand, the original fish, in fish and chips is fried with its skin on. My oldest son tried it when he was there years ago, and was grossed out because the skin was still on the fish. I think the only fish and chips he'd ever had previously was Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips, and that was many years ago when he was young.
Yes, sprinkle the vinegar on both and/or put in a shallow bowl for dipping both the fish and chips. (And I think you are supposed to eat the fish and chips with your fingers, not knife and fork).)
People will go into withdrawl without their mushy peas and cheeps
Scales and fins.
I miss the fish&chips in Victoria, and also a shop nearby Green Lake in Seattle, where I could barely afford it even then as a UW student.
Yes, those are the identifying marks of a clean fish. They reason they are clean is because they aren’t scavengers or naturally disease ridden.
The British call French Fries ‘Chips’ and Potato Chips they call ‘Crisps’...................
“(And I think you are supposed to eat the fish and chips with your fingers, not knife and fork).”
Maybe, but I’d really get the stares in Victoria when I’d pick up fried chicken that way. I do not recall how it was done in Southampton as I was only 17 at the time.
Been to McGuires a few times for the Irish pub fare. And a little Guinness to wash it down. Good times.
That’s what happens when Communists get their way.
I enjoyed but never did consider Ivar’s fish and chips to be authentic British style — maybe it was the breading, IDK. Not at all the same.
Used to be that Ivar’s had locations all over the PNW but now they have pulled back to the Puget Sound market area, excluding eastern WA towns like mine.
Been there on a weekend visit from Ocala when we lived there. Great place (BTW, born at Ft Meade; love the RB moniker)
For it’s origin read my homepage.....................
Did😎
👍🤦♂️................
“…the electricity to run the friers have all skyrocketed”
Windmills! Shutting down coal plants. Greeniacs in government who know best.
In the early 1960s my mother used to take my brother and me to a place in Watervliet, NY where fried fish was 25 cents.
That was a great price back then and place was packed.
My mother later sold fish for a living. She would not eat fish because she saw fish gutted in her youth.
British electricity is about three times the cost of most US electricity on a kilowatt hour basis.
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