Cost of fish and chips rising faster than any other UK takeaway
Fish and chips is a British culinary staple and has long been an affordable indulgence up and down the country.
But the traditional chippy dinner has been revealed to be the takeaway which is increasing in price the quickest, according to official data.
The average cost for a cod and chips around the UK is almost £10, up more than 50 per cent in five years.
Inflation and soaring costs of potatoes and fish brought about by climate change and the war in Ukraine are partially to blame for the meal costing £9.88 in July 2024, the most recent available data, compared to £6.48 in July 2019.
Figures gathered by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show restaurant and takeaway meals have increased in price across the board.
Other takeaway favourites to soar in price are the kebab, which is up 44 per cent to £7.57, a chicken and chips up 42 per cent to £6.70 and a pizza up 30 per cent to £10.48.
Chinese and Indian takeaways are also up by 29 per cent each, with a main costing an average of £7.14 and £9.71, respectively.
The rise in prices spiked in 2022 after the cost of living crisis caused energy costs to rocket, while a 35 per cent tariff on Russian seafood imports was implemented in March after the country invaded Ukraine, driving up the cost of importing fish.
The price of chips has also soared because potato farmers are finding it harder to make good yields on maris pipers and other native varieties after several years of bad weather and disease. Tim Rooke, the potato policy chair at the National Farmers Union, said earlier this month that they are in “steady decline”.
Data from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs’ agricultural price index (API) shows that UK farmers are now being paid roughly three times what they were in 2019 as a result of poor harvests.
Figures from the ONS on shopping prices – which factors in inflation – found the cost of a kilogram of white potatoes is now 89p, an increase of seven pence (nine per cent) in the past five years.
“We’ve had the perfect storm of events in terms of cost pressures,” Jon Long, of Long John’s Fish and Chips in Dorset, told the BBC. “It’s not a cheap meal anymore. I think it’s still good value but it has become more expensive.”
The ONS gathers data on the average national cost of thousands of household items and of all the items that have at least five years of data, olive oil has suffered the biggest price increase.
In July 2024 it cost £8.83, rising from £6.39 for 500ml to 1 litre in just 12 months.
The other popular food items to rise steeply in cost are white sugar (up 70 per cent), frozen beef burgers (up 67 per cent), baked beans (up 66 per cent), and large still bottles of water (64 per cent).
Baking potatoes are the only item of food that can be bought in a shop to have decreased in price (down 7.7 per cent) and lemons cost the same (32 pence) in July 2024 as they did in July 2019.
