In recent months, the increase in food due to the international context has been impacting the basic basket. In addition to the shortage of some products due to the stoppage of carriers, now restaurants point out that they could increase their prices by 40 per cent.
The reason is the increase and shortage of the inputs that businesses use to prepare their dishes, according to the president of the Association of Hotels, Restaurants and Allied People of Peru (Now Peru), Blanca Chávez.
Chávez commented that restaurants are currently considering increasing the price of their menus between 20% and 40%. “If the situation worsens even more, they could rise by up to 80%,” he told the newspaper Gestión.
The union representative assured that there had not been a price increase before, considering how hit the economy is by the national situation and the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the current situation and the extra cost of inputs invites the commencement of the transfer and the increase in prices, otherwise they would not be able to pay their staff.
Other measures that restaurant owners have also evaluated is to remove the most expensive dishes from the menu and those that require currently scarce inputs. In that way, he pointed out that the businesses most affected would be those that sell ceviche or grilled chicken, since they have no substitutes.
“We are hurting ourselves, we have to pay rent, taxes and the government is not providing solutions,” he said.
In addition, Chávez pointed out that these measures would also affect workers. “If I have seven people in my kitchen and now I will remove 40% of the dishes, then I have to adjust my form,” he explained.
And even with the curfew decreed for April 5, losses of 10% of the month's sales were reported in restaurants.
PRIME MINISTER DOES NOT RULE OUT BEING IN THE LAST MONTHS OF PEDRO CASTILLO'S GOVERNMENT, AFTER CONTROVERSIAL CURFEW
In an interview with a Colombian newspaper, the president of the Council of Ministers, Aníbal Torres, did not rule out that we are in Pedro Castillo's last days as president of the Republic, due to the recent events and protests in Peru. “In Peru, anything is possible,” he said.
“This is not new in Peru and it comes from a few years ago. In the previous five-year period we had five presidents and three congresses. This situation has not been overcome. We try to overcome it and try to dialogue with the other side, but the other side only looks at its own interest, but not on the monopolies and oligopolies that set the price for the consumer,” he told Bluradio.
Torres indicated that since Pedro Castillo assumed the presidency, sector A and sector B of the country's population have not recognized their victory in the general elections and have always been behind the vacancyb “or demanding resignation or proposing in Congress constitutional accusations. That always exists and it is difficult for it to disappear.”
“We have had a meeting in Congress, we are always invoking that we must agree, dialogue and work together, unitarily for the good of the country, but we find from the other side that they do not want to recognize that attitude of the executive. It is a sector of Congress, not everything,” he said.
On the other hand, the premier also criticized the work of the Peruvian press and the opposition, who he pointed out that he was behind an attempted coup d'état.
“We cannot ignore that in Peru there is a press that thieves the truth, which permanently misinforms, that deceives the population,” he said.
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