Chipping Away At Our Pockets

The price of a bag of chips is set to jump to more than €2.50 after a doubling in the cost of potatoes. To compound that, patrons of the local chipper are facing a double whammy as spiralling cod and haddock costs are putting pressure on chip shop owners to increase the price of fish, too, bringing the average price of fish & chips more than €10.Proprietors are reacting to the fact that the cost of a 25kg bag supplied to chip shops has gone from €8 last October to €16 today – with some chippers now using imported potatoes. Peter Borza of P Borza in Dublin's Liberties and Dalkey said the 200 members of his Irish Traditional Italian Chippers Association were in a desperate bid to maintain prices for a single despite the doubling in the cost of spuds.One of the wettest and dullest summers on record meant his members were being forced to source spuds from Britain. But prices of British spuds have shot up also because of the wet summer and demand from Russia."The price of potatoes has doubled, but it is very hard for us to put prices up. We are trying to hold on as long as we can," Mr Borza said.