Over the next few years, the National Federation of Fish Friers, which represents “chippies,” predicts that a third of the U.K.’s roughly 10,5000 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.