Eating out to burn more hole in pocket; hotels start to raise food price

Kochi: Kochiites have started feeling the pinch of dining out as popular eateries have resorted to hiking food prices, left with no choice but to meet the rising expense following the ‘huge' surge in commercial LPG prices.Some hotels, wary of hiking the prices, further cut down items like fish curry meals, Kerala parotta and soups from the menus to tide over the crisis after the price hike to Rs 993 on May 1. In response to the price hike, hotels across state will close shutters on Wednesday. This follows a call by Kerala Hotel & Restaurant Association (KHRA), which represents nearly one lakh eateries, hotels, restaurants, bakeries and canteens across the state. The online food delivery workers also threatened to stop the services on the day. Popular restaurants like Srikrishna Inn and The Indian Coffee House chains hiked the food prices by 5% to 10%, while most midlevel eateries increased prices of individual items like meals to Rs 150 (from Rs 110-Rs 120) and tea to Rs 15 (Rs 13 earlier). "The hike follows the rise in price of LPG cylinders by at least 50% (from Rs 1,600 to Rs 3,000) in the last few weeks," a manager of Srikrishna Inn said. "Most hoteliers have reached a point where they can no longer absorb the cost increase. Ideally, they need to increase food prices by at least 50% to counter the commercial LPG prices. But they are wary of a potential drop in the volume of consumers. Volume is a key factor as the expense to prepare 100 tea or 300 tea is the same, or that for the case of items like masala dosa," said KHRA state committee president G Jayapal. What worsened the crisis for the hotel industry is the simultaneous rise in prices of milk and vegetables. While the price of milk rose by Rs 4/litre, that of vegetables like beans (Rs 170/kg now as compared to earlier Rs 70 to Rs 100), carrot (Rs 60 as against Rs 40), tomato (Rs 60 as against Rs 20), coriander leaves (Rs 170 per kg as against Rs 80) and curry leaves (Rs 120 per kg as against Rs 30), he pointed out. "We incurred an additional expense of nearly Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 per day. However, we haven't effected a price hike. Most of the vegetable items are being served, while select items like fish curry meals have been temporarily cut. We're participating in the statewide protest," said an executive of Ceylon Bake House. Similarly, popular vegetarian restaurants like Green Spoon have cut many items from the menus to counter the rising expenses. The India Coffee Board Workers' Co-operative Society Ltd, which runs the nearly 50 Indian Coffee House chains across the state, convened an emergency board meeting on Tuesday in which it was decided to effect a Rs 5% to Rs 10% rise in prices. "Earlier we would use 4,000 gas cylinders a month, now we've cut to 1,480 per month. But the hike by Rs 993 meant we're incurring an additional expense of Rs 60 lakh a month. We'll bear half of the expense while passing the other half to the customers just to stay afloat," said president Anilkumar S S. In March, the restaurant chain reduced the volume of certain dishes such as dosa and poori, which are served only during the key hours such as breakfast period. "Also, meals won't be provided till the crisis is over as it requires a lot of dishes to be prepared. So instead, we're serving biryani items," said Shibu G, secretary.