Here's why the war in Ukraine is making fish and chips more expensive

The war in Ukraine has changed the lives of millions of the country's civilians, with many killed or injured by Russian attacks and many more left fleeing to safety.

Though the conflict is taking place 1,500 miles from the UK, -the ramifications of the war can still be felt here in the price of food.

The price of ingredients of one of the nation’s favourite dishes – fish and chips – have all increased as a result of the fighting in Europe. So too has the price of energy needed to cook it.

Foods such as potatoes and fish, as well as many others, have risen and fish and chip shops who have been in business for over a century say it’s worse than ever before.

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Richard Ord, whose family runs Colmans Fish and Chips in South Shields, told the BBC: “My family has been in business for over 100 years and we’ve never seen anything like this.

“We're trying to absorb the costs as much as we can but unfortunately we won’t be able to do that for much longer.”

Ord claimed that since last year, the price of white fish, which Russia is a large supplier of, has risen in price by 50 per cent.

Potatoes are up by 30 per cent and rising. Meanwhile, peas for mushy peas have seen price rises of 100 per cent.

In addition, the cost of energy, which Russia is again a major supplier of, has risen an incredible 400 per cent for businesses unprotected by a price cap.

One potato producer also revealed they will be cutting production by at least 10 per cent for fears that they will actually lose money on their produce.

Increasing prices pale in comparison to what Ukrainians are going through but who'd have thought the humble fish, chips and mushy peas could reveal so much about the world we’re living in?

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.

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