Restaurants in trouble: menus are getting shorter, cheap ingredients are coming, and it won’t be warm everywhere

By: Trademagazin Date: 2022. 10. 14. 08:15

Those who survive are forced to take very serious measures due to the combined effect of food inflation and reciprocity. As revealed in the survey conducted by the Financial Center, restaurants in the countryside are in a much more difficult situation than those in the capital, since tourists there are “as rare as the white raven”, which is why many people would like to abolish the 4 percent tourism development contribution.

Many people are looking for cheaper suppliers, which leads to the disappearance of quality raw materials, only dishes that are prepared faster and require less energy remain on the menu, special, more complicated dishes disappear, and of course it will be colder in the consumer space in winter. According to the owner of the restaurant chain, who previously spoke to Pénzcentrum, their overheads have recently increased by 300-400 percent, raw material prices by 100-150 percent, and labor costs have doubled. But on the first of January, mandatory data provision will start, which will place new burdens on businesses. And then we haven’t even talked about the introduction of mandatory data provision or the increase in the price of items such as packaging material.

According to the president of the Industry Association of Hungarian Restaurateurs, restaurants cannot survive without state aid. According to László Kovács, there is no business model that can eliminate the tenfold increase in gas prices. So far, state aid has been limited to the fact that the government imposes an additional tax on Szép cards that are not used on time – the government decree about this was published in the Magyar Közlöny a few days ago. This gives cardholders some incentive to spend, but according to professional organizations, this is very little.