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There's A Potato Scallop Shortage And It's Breaking All Of Our Hearts

First there was a nationwide garlic bread shortage. Now this.

As the nation battles a legitimate potato shortage due to extreme weather conditions, the production of potato scallops has also been devastatingly affected.

It's in the heart of the nation's capital, that fish and chip owners have been hardest hit. Shops having no option but to turn to frozen goods in tough times.

It's been a rough year as the country battled a potato shortage that was caused by extreme weather conditions that damaged crops and in turn, delayed harvests.

Fish and chip shop owner Kerry Spanos spoke to the Canberra Times to say a lot of them have given up, having to use frozen scallops instead of that fresh Aussie potato.

"A lot of the shops are buying them frozen now. The prices have gone through the roof," the Watson Takeaway owner said to the paper.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the shortage came after heavy rain and a particularly cold winter. This led to crop damage, tight supply and inflated prices.

"Pretty much every state got affected in some way. We probably only just broke even," potato farmer Anthony Failla told SMH.

"We can't get any potato scallops whatsoever. We've been to all of them mate - every supplier in Canberra that supplies takeaway shops and none of them's got scallops," Owner of The Corner Takeaway in Queanbeyan said to The Canberra Times.

"I used to sell 1000 scallops a week and I'm not picking up $1000 elsewhere," they quite heartbreakingly added.

Food supplier Bidfood who's said to supply a whopping 80% of Canberra's takeaway shops has been out of potato scallops for a whole two months, the paper reports.

If you are a bit confused to why potato scallops were hit so hard. We can confirm, so were we. But basically potato scallops need a large potato to make those big, juicy slices.

In a potato shortage of this size, it turns out these can be an extremely rare thing to find in an abundance. So, there you have it.

What is a potato scallop?

Macquarie Dictionary calls it "a thin slice of potato dipped in batter and deep-fried".

It requires one long, thin slice of a large potato. There's been significant debate over whether it should be referred to as a potato cake.

It's not to be confused with a sea scallop which is a type of shellfish.

There's even been a Twitter debate about the real name of the potato scallop. Many people are speculating that they should be called potato cakes.

Cake or scallop? Who cares. There's a serious shortage here, people. Hopefully the potato gods will answer our carb loving prayers. Stat.

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