Potato crisps in short supply in third of British shops, official figures show   

The UK's poultry industry has suffered from shortages of workers due to post-Brexit immigration restrictions and Covid-19

Gary Lineker who promotes Walkers crisps. Britons each eat on average two packets of crisps a week, Kantar said.

Potato crisps remain in short supply in almost one-in-three British shops, according to figures released by the UK's Office for National Statistics following production difficulties at a major supplier.

Britain's biggest crisp producer Walkers, part of Pepsi, had to scale back production of the potato snack at the start of the month after problems with an IT systems upgrade, which it warned could take weeks to fix.

Some 4% of shops visited between November 12 and November 15 had no multipacks of crisps for sale, while 26% had only limited supplies, according to market research by Kantar Public, published by the Office for National Statistics.

Britons each eat on average two packets of crisps a week, Kantar said.

Frozen turkeys - which were the scarcest product last week, when Kantar did not look into crisp supplies - had no or low availability at 15% of shops.

The poultry industry, which has suffered from shortages of workers due to post-Brexit immigration restrictions and Covid-19, said earlier this week there would be enough whole turkeys for Christmas but a limited range of other products.

Problems in Britain have been exacerbated by Brexit, which limits the ability of employers to hire workers from mainland Europe - most visibly last month when there were long queues at petrol stations. 

Reuters