Local fish and chip shop owners have expressed concern for their industry following price increases.

This comes as the war in Ukraine affects oil and fish supplies and costs. This is because 40% of the white fish that comes into the country is from Russian vessels and the majority of the world's crops for sunflower oil is grown in Ukraine.

The harsh price increases, which have seen the cost of fish increase by 40%, has meant fish and chip shops have had to pass the increases onto customers.

Graham Davies, owner of Long’s Fish and Chips in King Street, Bridport said: “It’s having a big effect on us now, we have reluctantly had to put our prices up as we can’t swallow the price increases that are coming now, it’s just too much, especially with the 20% VAT back up now.

“It didn’t help when the government put on the 35% levy against Russian cod. A lot of the frozen sea cod is caught in Russia and Norway. This meant the Norwegians have had to increase their prices otherwise everybody would have gone to Norway and we would have run out of fish.

“The price of oil is going up as well, the one I buy has gone up by 20%.

“I am lucky that I’ve got an all year-round trade with the people of Bridport, they’ve been very good to us through the pandemic and everything, they’ve supported us very well and hopefully they still will.”

Matt Yaxley, owner of Herbie's Fish and Chips in Lyme Regis said: “All chip shops are affected by what’s going on. Around November last year a 20 kilo box of frozen cobblers was £175 and now its £265.

“Cooking oil has gone up by over £10, it’s now about £34 pound a drum. Everything is going up and we’ve unfortunately had to put our prices up because of it, which is something we didn’t really want to do.

“We’ve had to put fish and chips up to £9.50 a portion at the moment. Nobody has complained but there’s only a certain price people can afford to pay with the cost of living increasing. We’ve tried keeping our prices down but we just can’t.”

Andrew Crook, president of the National Federation of Fish Friers, hopes people will continue to support their local fish and chip shop.

He said: “We’re a resilient industry and we’ll adapt. Not everybody will get through it but we’ll do what we can. Shops may diversify or use different species of fish, but we hope the consumers will continue to eat fish and chips – they’re so iconic and part of the fabric of the nation.”