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.
Guangzhou?
“Spud Fish’n’Chips”?
Fish farming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUITxHXjQPE
Basically, we’re doing to fish what we’ve done to poultry: industrializing it. This is farming in 3-dimensions. The potential yield is enormous.
The idea extends to growing catfish as a cash crop by backing up a stream, to fencing parts of the ocean to farm salmon.
With the Law of the Seat Treaty, countries can regulate fishing up to, I think, 100 miles from their shores. This way countries like Iceland can control the catch, and making fishing sustainable, when Chinese fishing trawlers would come in and clean out the entire population of cod.
When Bill Gates tells you to eat bugs, he’s revealing his ignorance of the truly revolutionary source of protein that fish farming offers.
This sob story about the troubles faced by small time operators, is a repeat of the lament that supermarket chains posed to ma and pa grocery stores. I’m sorry. It’s the creative destruction of the market process.
Hopefully, the old ways of fishing will be preserved by various forms of history. We need to honor the past as we move into the future.
Fish and chips haven’t been the same since the UK banned them wrapped in newsprint.
Those were the days...
Sigh.
Why the ban?....................
Pete’s is pretty good for inexpensive fish & chips. I agree that Long John Silver’s is horrible, possibly the worst anywhere.
When I lived in Oregon, there was a fish & chips chain called Skipper’s that wasn’t bad, but the best was at Elephant and Castle in downtown Portland. They closed 20 years ago, though.
Gesundheit!
The excuses included everything from ink to littering.
I hate government.
Inks, back when I was a paperboy in the late 60’s early 70’s, were petroleum based. Now they are soy based.............
Farm-raised catfish has been a big business in the Southern US for decades. IMO, the quality is much better than wild-caught catfish.
I can recall as a kid eating catfish my dad would sometimes catch, and complaining of the muddy taste. I was spoiled on the taste of bream and bass, I guess.
My Canadian wife loved Manoll’s Fish and Chips in Brockville, Ontario. They wrapped the order in newsprint last we checked, but that was a long time ago.
Of course, newspapers are so small now, I don’t know if there is as much newsprint available.
I like the food at Captain “Disease”, but not so much the customer service or the wait times. Sometimes on my way home I’ll try to grab a couple pieces of fish(all the grease i can stand nowadays) and some hushpuppies. If there are any cars in the drive thru its a minimum 15 minute wait and a no go. Heck if its just me and I get lucky where Im the only one its still 5 minutes plus. Im sure it has lots to do with demographics of the help that would rather “clown” than work.
“ Because of the war in Ukraine?! I doubt that!”
Yea, me too. More likely it’s terrible economic and energy policies.
L
“ Nobody knows who Arthur Treacher was anymore.”
I remember those. First place I ever had fish and chips. Still love it to this day.
L
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