Britain’s fish and chip shops are facing the ‘biggest crisis’ in history as they struggle to secure cooking oil due to the war in Ukraine.
A leading industry body has warned that one in three chippies could close by the end of this year due to a national shortage of sunflower oil.
There are around 10,500 fish and chip shops across the UK, according to the National Federation of Fish Friers (NFFF).
But around 3,500 of them could be forced out of business because of a spike in prices for the oil and its alternatives.
Ukraine is the world’s largest producer and exporter of sunflower oil.
Since Russia invaded the country, the price per drum has risen from around £30 to £44.
The war has also driven up the cost of alternatives like palm oil and rapeseed oil.
NFFF president Andrew Crook, who runs his own fish and chip shop in Lancashire, gets through around 200 litres – or 10 20-litre drums – of sunflower oil every week.
Now, he is trying to make that stretch to ride out the crisis.
He told the i newspaper: ‘There’s hardly any rapeseed oil because there was a bad crop of rapeseed last year. The price of palm oil has doubled. If there’s no sunflower oil, no rapeseed oil and a lot less palm oil it’s going to be very difficult [for fish and chip shops].’
The chip shop owner, who runs Skippers of Euxton, in Chorley, has already put his prices up since the war broke out and he plans to raise them again soon.
He added: ‘We’ve just come through one major crisis with the pandemic…now we’re in this crisis which is even bigger.’
In 2019, Ukraine was responsible for 48% of global sunflower seed and safflower oil exports, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity.
The second-largest producer is Russia, which exported 24% of the world’s supply in the same year.
Because stocks are running low due to the war, some shoppers are turning to alternatives, creating a shortage in all cooking oil.
Last week, supermarkets in the UK started rationing customers to two bottles each due to shortages.
However, further problems are anticipated after Indonesia announced a surprise export ban on palm oil to tackle rising domestic prices on Monday.
Palm oil is used in everything from cakes and frying fats to cosmetics and cleaning products.
Experts say Indonesia’s decision will affect not only palm oil availability, but vegetable oils worldwide – pushing prices up once again.
Rasheed JanMohd, chairman of Pakistan Edible Oil Refiners Association (PEORA) said: ‘Nobody can compensate for the loss of Indonesian palm oil. Every country is going to suffer.’
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