Municipal and state permits take more than 1.5 years to be approved: Canirac Nuevo León

Monterrey, NL. It is estimated that around 500 new restaurants and those under renovation have not been able to open due to the delay in the release of municipal and state permits, which before were resolved between three and six months and now have not been approved for more than a year, particularly that of the sale of alcohol, according to data from the National Chamber of the Restaurant and Seasoned Food Industry (Canirac) Nuevo León delegation.

The president of the Nuevo León de Canirac delegation, Daniel García Rosales, called on the municipal and state authorities to simplify procedures and speed up the opening of restaurants, since this situation slows down the economic recovery of the sector and discourages investments.

“There have been many reports from the union, where the procedures for opening a restaurant, for alcohol permits, and those for urban development have not been flowing, this prevents Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and national from reaching the state” .

“You have to understand that the sale of food is 50% and the sale of beverages is the other 50%, that causes the recovery of the sector to be slower, that is why we call on the corresponding authorities, to encourage the opening of new restaurants, as you know, the Covid-19 pandemic left us with a balance of 5,000 to 7,000 restaurants that have already ceased to exist”.

He added that this figure was recovered with small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, however, the main factor that inhibits the growth of these businesses is inflation.

In turn, Miguel Ángel Treviño, vice president of the Chamber, added that inflation added to the scarcity of products have generated a problem in the restaurant industry, where they no longer want to increase consumer prices.

Inflation was very high this year, and we have a difficult outlook for 2023, the scarcity of inputs is an issue that hits, because it raises prices a lot” and does not give them room to avoid increasing prices, Treviño explained.

In context, the president of Canirac Nuevo León recalled that with the alcohol permits, the government of Rodrigo Medina applied double taxation, where the permit was only requested from the municipality and the state intervened and put a filter, and since then no he has retired.

“The fact of having to pay the municipality and the state causes a difficulty in the process. What is happening? Nuevo León is a state where we receive many foreign people, we are also an industry that is constantly growing and requires more and more employment. The drawback is that the executives work until 11 at night and we have to close at 2:00 in the morning”, the restaurant leader explained.

For this reason, this union requests to extend the opening hours until 3:00 in the morning, so that foreigners who make a business visit or work here can go out to enjoy the northeastern gastronomy, and have night places to visit, “not We have been able to achieve it, because we have not obtained the permit in the municipality”, added Daniel García Rosales.

He reiterated that they call on each of the municipalities, mainly the one in the state capital, to support the economy.