Chip shop owners on the Norfolk coast say a mountain of challenges has led to a ‘perfect storm’, as costs rise.

Surging prices have caused the ‘worst crisis’ in the fish and chip shop industry’s history, according to national reports, with a squeeze on the cost of both fish and oil, as well as general inflation.

The conflict in Ukraine has seen sunflower oil prices pushed higher, with the beleaguered nation and Russia producing more than 50pc of the globe's sunflower seeds.

French's and Plattens, two fish and chip shops in Wells, said they might have little choice but to increase their prices.

Marcus French owns French's by The Quay. He said he has seen the price for a case of cod increase by at least £40, with more than 40pc of the fish caught by Russia.

That has demand increase on his suppliers in Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, increasing prices.

“It is all a challenge at the moment. Members of staff are hard to get, oil prices are going up - it is a perfect storm, everything is so difficult to get right now,” he said.

“Thankfully, Wells is popular and we have a lot of families here, and hopefully we will be okay, but I can see some fish and chips shops will not make it through the next 18 months because they won’t make enough to get through the winter to carry on.”

Hospitality is also braced for VAT is to return to 20pc from 12.5pc, with the Wells businesses hoping that the treasury will delay the increase to keep some pressure off.

Luke Platten, director of Platten's, said now is the most pressured environment he has seen in the trade.

Mr Platten, whose shop recently announced its plan for a four-day working week, said this decision was to offer customers an exceptional experience to justify the price increase.

“Doing any task, let alone serving fish and chips, it is tough to deliver as good a service at hour ten, than it was at hour one,” he said.

“This is where the four day week is coming from. We hope we can develop a bigger team so we can continue delivering the high expectation we set for ourselves, and hopefully justify the price increase.

“The biggest challenge for us is being able to still deliver what a customer would deem as value for money."