The New Indian Express ·
Sugar squeeze hits B'luru kitchens as prices spike, supplies turn unpredictable
It is easy to overlook sugar in a restaurant kitchen. It dissolves into a cup of tea and sometimes helps a dessert achieve the right texture and finish. But in the city’s restaurants and dessert kitchens, the ingredient is becoming harder to take for granted with some reporting inconsistent supplies and sharply rising procurement costs. The situation has also brought renewed attention to the relationship between sugar and ethanol. Produced by fermenting sugars in sugarcane juice, syrup and molasses, it is blended with petrol to reduce crude oil imports. Whether this is responsible for the squeeze, however, is contested.
Founder and head chef Niharika Peri of Eatinn’ Love Trattoria, Jayanagar, has not seen a major disruption but the restaurant, which uses brown sugar instead of refined sugar, is keeping a close eye on availability. “We are checking availability with suppliers earlier and keeping a buffer rather than waiting until stocks are almost over. However, we don’t want to unnecessarily stock large quantities,” Peri says, sharing that the process is more about planning ahead and keeping alternative suppliers accessible.
Infinitea’s owner, tea master and chef Gaurav Saria says the biggest challenge is not the price. “Availability from regular suppliers has become inconsistent. The biggest difficulty is the unpredictability. When you run an in-house bakehouse everyday, producing breads, cakes and confections, you cannot plan around a supply chain that changes week to week. It forces you to tie up cash in stock you would rather not be holding. That said, we have always offered a strong range of sugar-free options, so we are better insulated than most,” he shares.
Infinitea was paying around Rs 45-48 per kg of sugar but is now sourcing at approximately Rs 60-65 per kg. Saria says the cafe has started buying ahead in larger quantities and diversified suppliers. He adds, “It is not the most efficient use of working capital, but right now, continuity matters more.”
Fajr Qureishi, the co-founder of F&F Hospitality and a key figure in bringing Cantonese restaurant brand Royal China to Bengaluru, says, prices have moved from roughly Rs 38-48 per kg earlier to peaks of Rs 56-60 per kg. Sugar is used across beverages, desserts, sauces, dressings and marinades. He recommends tracking consumption, noting how long a bag lasts and buying before stock empties. Smaller, frequent purchases can also help.
Amara Desserts is seeing the impact directly on costs. Co-founder Edwin Daniel says the business previously paid below `50 per kg and is now paying around `80 per kg. A typical production day uses around 15-20kg. “Sugar is critical across a significant range of products – in cakes, pastries and other baked products, but even more so in desserts and Indian sweets because sugar is not merely a sweetner, it is part of the structure of the product,” Daniel says, adding that swapping one grade of sugar for another isn’t always an option because it can change the finished product. “The issue is not that sugar has completely disappeared from the market, but specific grades and specifications are becoming difficult to procure consistently,” he says.
Trattoria’s dependence on sugar is relatively low, with most of its requirement going into desserts, beverages and kitchen preparations. That gives Peri some flexibility, but she says substitutions are not as simple as swapping one sweetener for other. “We could explore jaggery or honey in preparations where their flavour works naturally, but they aren’t direct substitutes. Every sweetener behaves differently. We can adapt certain beverages or develop new preparations around them, but in established desserts, a substitution can change both flavour and texture. As a chef, I would rather reformulate a recipe than make a substitution that compromises the dish,” she adds.
On the other hand, Qureishi says if the situation continues, the first visible change would be something as simple as free sugar packets disappearing from tables. “Restaurants may have to start rationing high-sugar beverages, tweaking recipes and looking at alternatives such as honey or agave, though they can bring higher costs and changes in flavour,” she opines.
For now, Bengaluru’s kitchens are buying carefully, planning ahead and absorbing what costs they can. If the squeeze continues, customers would eventually notice higher prices or recipe changes. For an ingredient that usually disappears into the food, sugar has now become impossible for the industry to ignore.