Restaurants refuse to increase prices | El Siglo de Torreón

Every year, the price increases for lemon and avocado are a “terror” for taco restaurants, which are the majority in La Laguna, and now they were surprised by the increase in cilantro; however, they rule out modifying the prices of the dishes on the menu as a consequence of these increases.

“Wow, this is something that has hit us hard, onions and tomatoes increased by 150 percent at the end of last year, today we have the news of cilantro, in Puebla is where it is produced the most, with the climate issue there was a lot of drought and the bunches of cilantro are arriving very, very small, very dry and they are up to 80 or 90 pesos, it is a product that in Mexican food restaurants is given away in salsa, cilantro is something that is given away, that is given to accompany tacos, so, yes, it comes to hit us,” said Eduardo Nieto Mendoza, president of the National Chamber of the Restaurant and Seasoned Food Industry (Canirac).

He hoped that the price would go down in the coming weeks so that it would not impact the cost of doing business, as he assured that “just because we hear that the price of cilantro has gone up does not mean that we are going to change the menus. This is not the case, it is very difficult, there are many very important issues that need to be addressed when changing a menu or a price for the customer.”

He considered that prices could level off before losses occur in establishments as a result of this situation, which is a national problem and not exclusive to the Laguna region, although he acknowledged that in this area cilantro consumption is relatively high because it is a fundamental accompaniment to sauces, pico de gallo and tacos.

On the other hand, the leader of the restaurant sector mentioned that staff turnover is another of the problems that have already occurred frequently in this industry, which is why it has been decided to provide more training to employees.

“It is normal for there to be staff turnover. Here, our strategy is to train each restaurant well, so that if someone leaves me, I know that they will go to another restaurant, but they will be well trained, and vice versa, they will also come here. I think that they experiment with different types of service, there are many economic proposals and the same staff likes to experiment. Sometimes they want to be in a more structured kitchen, then more fast food, they are different types of restaurants,” he commented.