Inflation impacts restaurants in Jalisco

Guadalajara, Jal. The Jalisco restaurant industry – the second most important in the country with 8.8% of the food preparation businesses in the entire country – will close 2022 with a “significantly high” growth of almost 50% compared to 2021.

“After the fall in the pandemic, in which there was a decrease of -41% in 2020, increasing 47.5% leads us to levels of apparent economic recovery,” said the president of the Jalisco delegation of the National Chamber of the Industry of Restaurants and Seasoned Foods (Canirac), Mario Ávalos González.

However, he stressed that the constant increases in the Consumer Price Index “prevents us from being competitive”, since only in October, he said, the basic basket that contains most of the inputs used by the sector, registered its most significant increase with an increase of 16 percent.

“The grain and grocery price index has an annual increase of 11.6%; the annual fruit price index increases 11.1%; the animal protein price index shows an annual increase of 7%”, detailed the president of Canirac.

He clarified that restaurateurs make adjustments to their menus, in most cases, every three or six months, while the variation in the prices of their inputs occurs every day and in percentages that cannot be transferred to customers, so they are absorbed by the restaurant “sacrificing utility as a company and competition as a sector”.

In order to support the sector to promote its recovery, the Guadalajara city council signed an agreement with Canirac, through which the municipal government will give a 20% discount on the municipal license to establishments that sell alcoholic beverages.

lack of workers

Until last November, the sector closed with 54,539 formal jobs, of which 94% are permanent jobs.

Throughout the year, 3,139 new jobs were created; however, most establishments operate with 70% of their ideal workforce.

According to Ávalos González, “labor is a great issue that we have to discuss; Restaurants in general are working with 70% of the staff that is needed because right now it is difficult to find staff.”

estados@eleconomista.mx