2023-07-22 20:30:22
© Reuters.
Por Krishna Kaushik e Riddhima Talwani
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Some Subway India restaurants have stopped serving tomatoes in their salads and sandwiches due to quality issues, amid price increases of nearly 400% for the fruit in the country, while other establishments have taken similar steps.
A Subway store at New Delhi airport advertised “temporary unavailability of TOMATOES” on a sign, saying the restaurant was unable to obtain enough of the product to carry out quality checks.
“As a result, we are currently obliged to serve our products without tomatoes,” the sign read. “We are working to restore supply.”
Everstone Group’s Culinary Brands, which is the parent franchise for 200 of the 800 Subway stores in India and controls the supply chain for all of them, did not respond to a request for clarification by the report. It is unknown if other stores were affected.
Many restaurants in India still serve tomatoes, according to ordering apps and store links, but at least two establishments in New Delhi, one in Uttar Pradesh and one in Chennai no longer serve the fruit.
“It’s too expensive,” said a Subway store employee.
Two weeks ago, McDonald’s restaurants in India pulled tomatoes from their burgers and wraps in many parts of India due to quality issues.
In the capital, New Delhi, tomatoes were selling for around 168 rupees ($2.05) a kilogram on Saturday after reaching around 240 rupees.
The government attributes high tomato prices to the low production season, as monsoon rains disrupt transport and distribution. Months of higher prices follow for items ranging from milk to spices.
In recent weeks, the government has organized mobile vans to deliver tomatoes at cheaper prices, with hundreds of queues every day.
Global restaurant chains such as Domino’s and KFC are also launching lower-priced products in India, where consumers have cut back on spending due to high inflation.
(Reportagem de Krishn Kaushik, Riddhima Talwani, Aditya Kalra, Sriram Mani, Dhwani Pandya, Praveen Paramasivam and Euan Rocha)
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