Fish and chips are a worthy subject of historical and economic enquiry

Want a handle on what’s happening in the global supply chain right now? Look no further than your local fish and chip shop, writes Caroline Bullock

Trade organisations fear up to half of the UK’s chip shops could close (Getty/iStock)

I’ve never given much thought to where my fish, as in the battered variety served across the UK’s some 10,500 fish and chip shops, comes from. Provenance... that mot-du jour and determinant of many a consumer choice barely registers when indulging what is one of life’s great culinary pleasures.

This week I discovered that it’s most likely to be Russia, a country responsible for 45 per cent of the global supply. The invasion of Ukraine has reverberated through many global supply chains, highlighting the scope of perhaps lesser-known Russian imports, including white fish, 48,000 tonnes of which were sold to the UK in 2020. Furthermore, much of it will be fried in sunflower oil made in Ukraine – responsible for up to 46 per cent of sunflower-seed and safflower oil production. Then there’s the wheat used for the flour to make the batter, with both countries behind almost a third of the world’s exports, meaning eastern Europe is all over this very British staple.

Troubled times, therefore, for the trade as war rages. Fryers face both heavy disruption to ingredient supplies while having to absorb the extra costs induced by the 35 per cent hike in tariff on Russian imports as part of the economic sanctions. Trade organisations fearing up to half of the UK’s chip shops could close for good are calling on the Treasury for more support and not hearing much back. I fear it could be one of those pivotal moments for an industry on the cusp of what would be an all too predictably bleak trajectory; insufficient interventions when it mattered followed by the usual lament and regrets when family-run, generation-spanning institutions have shut up shop with the communities they served left a little poorer for it.