Meanwhile, many restaurants are still trying to keep prices the same, accepting "a little less profit" so as not to affect customers, while waiting for rice prices to "cool down".
"No increase, no hold!"
At 9am on August 12, as usual, Mr. Nam, the owner of a famous fried chicken rice restaurant in District 3 (HCMC), and a few assistants were busy setting up the stall, preparing to open for business at 10am.
In early August, Mr. Nam's shop started to increase prices.
In front of the restaurant, there is a menu board clearly stating the prices, ranging from 10,000 - 60,000 VND/serving. Pointing to it, the owner sighed and said that since the beginning of August, he has started to increase the prices of dishes by 3,000 - 5,000 VND. Specifically, the chicken thigh/chicken thigh rice dish has increased from 32,000 VND to 35,000 VND/serving, and the chicken quarter rice dish has increased from 55,000 VND to 60,000 VND/serving.
Mr. Nam, Owner"Before increasing the price, I also informed the customers so they would understand. I would reduce the price a little bit, and the customers would also understand so that we can overcome this difficult period together," the owner confided while cleaning the restaurant.
The restaurant owner feels lucky that despite the price increase, customers are understanding and still come to support him. However, he hopes that in the future, the price of rice can decrease so that his prices and business can soon stabilize. Because, he said, every day, the amount of rice he cooks is very large, if the situation continues and the price of rice continues to increase, it will greatly affect the restaurant's business.
Next to Mr. Nam's shop, Ms. Tram (45 years old), who has just opened a shop selling Central specialties as well as noodles and pasta, also hung a sign in front of the shop with the words: "From August 1, 2023, the shop will increase the price to 28,000 VND/bowl. Thank you!".
The owner said that not only rice, but many other raw materials also increased in price.
The owner said she just opened the restaurant 4 months ago. Although she doesn't sell many dishes made from rice, the increase in rice prices, according to her, has more or less affected her business.
Regarding the price increase of 3,000 VND, from the initial 25,000 VND, the owner confided that it was partly because the input materials had increased at this time, so she had to increase accordingly to be able to survive. If she kept the old price as when she first opened, it would be difficult to overcome this difficult period.
“I heard that the price of rice has increased by 2,000 VND. I may not be affected much at the moment, but in the long run, if it continues to increase at this rate, it will happen. Now everything is increasing, I only do small business so I just try to hold on and wait for the situation to improve," the owner said.
Increase costs, but not prices because…
Ms. Truong Thi Hanh (38 years old), owner of a beef noodle shop with nearly 40 branches in Ho Chi Minh City and several provinces in Vietnam, said that for the past month, since the price of rice started to increase, the price of noodles she imports has also increased. In the past 4 years, this is the first time she has encountered this situation.
Ms. Tram's shop hopes customers will understand when having to increase prices.
Ms. Hanh, Owner of beef noodle shopAccording to the owner, not only the price of noodles, but also other ingredients to cook a bowl of beef noodle soup have increased. Business is difficult, but she still decided not to increase the price for fear of losing customers, because the business situation in the past few months has not been very positive.
Similar to Ms. Hanh’s restaurant, the broken rice restaurant located at 852 Truong Sa Street (District 3) said that although the price of rice has increased, the restaurant has not increased the price because many months ago, the restaurant bought a large quantity of rice in reserve, and can sell for nearly 2 more months before running out. She said that the restaurant cooks about 100 kg of rice every day.
The manager of this restaurant said that they mainly serve students and ordinary workers, so the prices are only from 30,000 to 55,000 VND, or more if customers have demand. Therefore, although some restaurants increase the price of their dishes when the price of rice increases, her restaurant still tries to maintain it.
Having stocked up on rice months before prices started to rise, a broken rice restaurant has kept its prices the same.
The price of rice has increased, affecting restaurants selling dishes made from this food.
“As for the chicken dish, because the price of this ingredient has increased, the restaurant has increased the price by 2,000 VND in the past few days. The rest remains the same. I don’t know what the situation will be like in a few months when the rice reserves run out. Hopefully the price of rice will decrease by then,” she said.
The owner of a broken rice restaurant on Bui Minh Truc Street (District 8) also said that although the price of rice has increased, her restaurant has not been affected because her family also has relatives who sell rice. At this time, because of the close relationship, she is still supplied with rice at the old price, and business is not affected much.
"If we consider it in the long run, I'm a bit nervous because if it continues to increase, it will affect me. Let's wait and see, hoping that prices will stabilize for workers," the owner hopes.
As of the end of August 11, information from the Vietnam Food Association (VFA) and the Thai Rice Exporters Association (TREA) said: The price of 5% broken rice is at 650 USD/ton, while 25% broken rice of Vietnam is 618 USD/ton and Thailand is 612 USD/ton. These are all record high prices, at least in the past 15 years since the rice price fever in 2008. The price of 5% broken rice exceeding 600 USD is what many experts have predicted since the ban on rice exports in India. However, the price of 25% broken rice also exceeding 600 USD/ton is something that surprised many people.
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