Potato shortage: Tassie takeaways face abuse, declining profits

A Tasmanian takeaway boss says he is losing money on every serve, leading in part to an $80,000 hole, while his staff cop the brunt for smaller serving sizes. But good news may be on the way.

Flippers Cooked Seafood are finding ways around the potato shortage. Manish Acharya works at Flippers. Picture: Linda Higginson

Staff at Tasmanian takeaway shops are facing abuse and profit margins are being julienned thinner and thinner amid a nationwide potato shortage which has led to smaller servings at higher price for customers.

Shakers Takeaway Exeter owner Kelvin Davis told the Mercury his staff had copped personal abuse and his business condemned on social media for their decision to reduce sizes of chips serves and up the price. He is actively considering pulling hot chips from the menu.

“We’re getting abuse from customers, then they put it on social media,” Mr Davis said.

He said there were “bugger all” chips to be found in Tasmania, so “we’ve had to up the price”.

Shakers Takeaway Exeter employees Lisa Nichols and Cody O'Mahony. Picture: Supplied

“There’s no profit in chips, we’ve always given chips away in the hope of getting extra sale. To really make any money out of them, you’ve got to charge too much,” Mr Davis said.

However, these days, not only does he not make a profit from chips, he is actively losing money with every serving he fries.

“Realistically this is eating into our profits, we’ve lost $80–$100,000 this year, due to rising wages and prices going up. This will bring a lot of businesses under,” he said.

Potatoes are not the only pressures facing Shakers. Mr Davis said his weekly wage bill went up $1400 due to the recent rise in the minimum wage, cooking oil has doubled in price from approximately $50/barrel to north of $100, and he is struggling to source chicken and seafood.

“I can see it going to be that in the short term we won’t have fish, won’t have chips and we can’t get chicken. What are we going to sell the public?” he said.

Mr Davis said it was the negative feedback from the public which really stuck in his craw.

“If you told nurses or cops, all these workers screaming for higher pay, that they had to take a pay cut, they’d scream blue murder,” he said.

Another operator grappling with the shortage is Prospect Fish Shop. Operators told the Mercury they had upped the price of their chips in response to the crunch. They said they had adopted a flexible approach to their suppliers, taking what they could on an ad hoc basis.

Constitution Dock's Flippers Cooked Seafood has similarly adopted a flexible approach, manager David Owens said, frying up chips without regard to size or brand.

They have so far absorbed the higher cost of potatoes, he said.

Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association Vegetable Council chair Nathan Richardson said 18 months of inclement weather have brought potato farmers to their knees.

“There are shortages across most growing regions. Growers are getting hit with wet weather during planting and unfavourable seasonal conditions which lead to bad yields. Then there are less than favourable conditions delaying the harvest, incurring more losses in the field,” Mr Richardson said.

TFGA vegetable council chair and vegetable grower Nathan Richardson on his farm at Thirlstane. PICTURE CHRIS KIDD

He believed the supply crunch was just a few weeks from abating.

“All we need is a bit of fine weather and sun, that’s all that is needed for farmers to get a profitable yield,” he said.

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Mr Richardson said the potato shortage had hit the wholesale processed chip market particularly hard as purchasers were lower in the supply hierarchy than major supermarkets and fast-food chains, with whom farmers and processors had binding contracts.

Originally published as Potato shortage: Tassie takeaways face abuse, declining profits