The price of 100 grammes of Dutch grey shrimps has doubled over the past five months, with a Dutch ounce now costing around €10.

A soft white roll with shrimp and sauce – a popular treat during a day out – has now risen to around €8.50, and some outlets are removing them from the menu altogether, the AD reported.

“I have heard of a restaurant in Antwerp charging €36 for three shrimp croquettes,” Adri Bruijnooge from fish wholesalers Adri & Zoon – in Yerseke. “No one is going to pay that.”

There are several reasons why the shrimp has become so expensive – one of which is their mounting scarcity. According to Wageningen University research, the Netherlands’ 150 shrimp fishing boats caught some 7.4 million kilos of prawns last year but that is down 54% on a year ago.

Fuel has also become more expensive and the trawlers face more restrictions about where they can fish, because of offshore windfarms and the expansion of sea reserves.

Around 25% of prawn fishermen have now sold their boats and given up, the paper said.