WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!
Okay. This is serious.
The majority of us sat back and watched Brexit happen with a mixture of confusion and bemusement, never 100% sure what was happening, but secretly hoping that it would all end up okay, without really influencing our day-to-day lives too much.
But now? Now all bets are off.
The Irish Farmers Journal released a statement on Wednesday morning, and it was an announcement that finally got our collective attention, striking fear into the hearts of every man, woman, and child who glimpsed the horrific news.
Effectively, if a no-deal Brexit goes ahead, then it would likely result in a big increase in the price of chips for us here in Ireland.
We may need to take the streets yet.
As per the statement:
"No-deal Brexit tariffs could push up the price of a bag of chips in your local takeaway. A WTO tariff rate of 11.5% would apply to all fresh potato imports from the UK.
"Last year Ireland imported over 41,000 tonnes of fresh and chilled potatoes from Britain and 9,000 tonnes from Northern Ireland, mainly for chipping. That’s the equivalent of 100 million bags of chips.
"The potatoes would require phytosanitary certificates from the UK Plant Health authorities, leading to delays and higher costs. This could leave the chipping market and takeaway fans exposed to price increases. Just 7,000 tonnes of Irish chipping potatoes were grown in 2018."
We imported the equivalent of 100,000,000 bags of chips?!
Actually, come to think of it, that does sound about right, because we do love chips. And now they'll cost more money if the no-deal goes ahead?
We'll still pay for them, of course, but we'll also be slightly less happy about it every time we do... and nobody should even be slightly less than happy when eating chips.
