Fish and chip shop forced to close doors, potatoes "flying off shelves" at Illowa business

That's what a south-west business owner is preparing to do.

Portland Fish and Chips owner Darren Compton was forced to close his business on Christmas Eve due to a shortage of potatoes.

"Chips are impossible to find at the moment," Mr Compton said.

He said a "perfect storm", which included floods and frosts had left Mr Compton in the unenviable position of owning a fish and chip shop with no chips.

"I've searched everywhere," Mr Compton said.

"We got a delivery of 10 boxes the other night but that's only enough for about a night and a half."

Mr Compton said he had been peeling potatoes and trialling cooking his own chips.

He is now preparing to peel and cut about 150 kilograms of potatoes in a bid to open for at least a day later this week.

"We're hoping we'll be back open full-time in less than a fortnight," Mr Compton said.

But even then, he believes businesses will have restrictions on the amount of chips they can purchase.

Mr Compton said there were a number of other businesses in Portland that had been affected, including Canadian Rooster, which is also closed.

"Everybody who deals with potatoes is facing the same issue," he said.

The potatoes have been "flying off the shelves" at Volcano Produce at Illowa.

Owner Ben Pohlner said he was not having trouble keeping up with demand for his red and white potatoes.

However, wet weather destroyed $100,000 worth of other products late last year.

"We've had huge problems with the weather here," Mr Pohlner said.

"We had a massive problem with our broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages rotting and being affected by fungus.

"We lost close to $100,000 worth of product."

Mr Pohlner, who has been running the business for four years, said the loss had been devastating.

"We haven't encountered anything like this prior to this year - it's the first time we've encountered the issue," he said.

Mr Pohlner said the weather also delayed availability of his strawberries.

However, they are now ripe and available at the business' roadside store.

"We've learned a lot and we're hoping for a bigger and better 2023," Mr Pohlner said.

"We're hoping for some constant warmer weather."

Some supermarkets have limits on the number of bags of potato chips customers can buy due to the chronic shortage.

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