Those responsible for restaurants do not agree with the vision of the governor of the Bank of Portugal: “He is not seeing reality”.
After all, there is a crisis or there is not crisis in restoration in Portugal?
This Monday, Álvaro Santos Pereira said that . The governor of the Bank of Portugal presented numbers, showed graphs about recent years and assured: “In recent years, the restaurant sector grew a lot, thanks to the expansion of tourism and increased consumption.”
But restaurant officials responded quickly. Santos Pereira “does not portray reality of our country”, begins by saying Rui Paula.
The chef highlights: to retain his more than 100 employees, he started pay 15% more last year. To the raw materials stayed 28% more expensive.
An example: “A packet of egg yolks used to cost 3.25 euros and today it costs 8.25 euros.”
The margin of profit is half of what it was until 2020: now it is just over 10%, when it reached 25% until the pandemic.
Also in , Daniel Serra, president of the National Restaurant Association (ProVar), reinforces that “this general analysis does not reflect what is happening on the ground”.
Santos Pereira showed numbers, showed graphs, which are real. But the warning remained: “It cannot be analyzed based on global numbers that mix everythingfrom traditional restaurants to fast food chains and even supermarket restaurants.”
Raw materials, energy, wages and income increased in conventional restaurants.
As margins of entrepreneurs are “increasingly crushed. Many businesses earn more, but earn less and some no longer earn”, commented Daniel Serra.
The leader of ProVar reinforces that the sector needs support because there is a “urgent need for liquidity in many companies”.
