Industry chiefs in Ireland have warned of a ‘perfect storm’ of covid 19, inflation and war in the Ukraine could lead to a ‘tidal wave of closures’ for Irish chip shops. They’re warning that soaring costs caused by shortages of fish, potatoes, cooking oil and flour are causing a looming crisis for Ireland’s 450-odd chippers. Russia’s war has worsened global shortages of key ingredients  such as sunflower oil that already felt the strain during the pandemic. Award winning chipper owner, Dario Macari, stated that ‘The industry was just recovering from the pandemic when the war in Ukraine started. As a result, cod has now doubled in price. There are issues with the supply of flour also as the Ukraine produces huge amounts of grain.’ Dario said that there were now real fears that many chippers would be forced to close in the next 12 months if things didn’t improve dramatically. He added, ‘ Costs are rising and there could be a lot of closures in our sector.’

A large percentage of white fish like cod and haddock comes from Russian ships in the North Sea, so chip shops fear sanctions on Russian fish would reduce supplies and make catches more expensive. Even potato prices are affected as some fertilisers for the potatoes come in from Russia and have now trebled in price.