BAKU, Azerbaijan - Restaurant and cafe prices for chicken dishes in Baku may rise if the recent increase in chicken fillet costs persists, economist Natig Jafarli said, stressing that the projection is not an announced menu-price increase.
Chicken fillet has recently been offered at some retail outlets for 9 to 10 manats ($5.29 to $5.88) per kilogram, according to Azerbaijani market reports. Jafarli told Demokrat.az that higher beef and lamb prices have encouraged some consumers to switch to less expensive poultry, adding pressure to demand.
“When demand for a product rises, that naturally creates price pressure,” Jafarli said, according to the outlet. He said cafes and restaurants would likely adjust menu prices if their purchase costs continued to climb, and that the effect could become visible soon.
Jafarli did not give a percentage or a specific date for any restaurant price increase. His comments amount to an economic forecast rather than confirmation that restaurants have already changed their menus.
Separate reporting published Oct. 2 found that chicken fillet prices at some locations had increased from 6.5–7 manats to 9 manats per kilogram, while shoppers cited individual examples of increases from 4.8 manats to 7.9 manats. The head of Azerbaijan’s Poultry Meat and Egg Producers and Exporters Association said factory wholesale prices had not changed from a year earlier and described the shortage that contributed to the retail spike as temporary, according to Operativ Media.
The impact on a restaurant bill would not necessarily match the change in the raw ingredient. As an illustration, a 1-manat increase in the price of one kilogram of fillet adds 0.20 manat to the meat cost of a dish containing 200 grams of chicken. For a business buying 100 kilograms, the same increase adds 100 manats to purchasing costs.
Menu prices also reflect other ingredients, wages, rent, utilities and service costs, which means restaurants may absorb part of the increase, change portions or pass some or all of it to customers.
The forecast was first reported by Vesti Baku. AZE.US previously reported on earlier chicken fillet price increases and shortages in Azerbaijan.