Overview
- Seafish's late June report finds a portion of cod and chips averages £11.41 and haddock and chips averages £10.29 and estimates about 7,210 fish and chip shops operate across the UK.
- The report identifies rising purchase prices for fish, higher potato costs, more expensive cooking oil and greater energy bills as the main drivers of retail price increases.
- Shop owners are responding by diversifying menus with items such as kebabs, pizzas and masala fish or by trimming menu choices and work processes to reduce waste and save time.
- Office for National Statistics data for May shows CPI inflation at 2.8 percent, which reflects slower overall food-price rises but does not remove the sector-specific cost pressure described by Seafish.
- Industry figures stress that fish and chip shops remain a resilient part of local economies and food culture and warn that continued input-cost pressure could change menus, jobs and fish sourcing in communities.