An Italian restaurant boss fears he'll go out of business soon due to the country's current vegetable shortage and soaring pasta prices, which have seen his costs rise by up to 80%.
Carmine Montuori, 52, moved to Bristol from Italy nine years ago - and runs Taste of Napoli, in the heart of Bristol's shopping quarter. He says the family-run business is at risk of going under in as little as three months because of vegetable shortages, blamed on weather in Europe and Africa.
Carmine says the shortages mean prices of their vegetables, pasta and rice have skyrocketed. Rice price for arancini has doubled and pasta costs are up by 80%, he says.
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He would need to charge double for the same meals to maintain profits - or cull up a quarter of his menu. If ingredient prices don't fall in the next couple of months, the business has "no chance of staying on the market".
Carmine says this is just the latest challenge in a string of problems for the independent hospitality sector - which started back in 2016 with Brexit.
The dad-of-three said: "It's a real problem. The vegetable prices from wholesalers are 50% higher than last month. But we have no choice because we can't get them from the supermarkets - the shelves are empty.
"Rice prices for our arancini have doubled and the Italian pasta we use has gone up by 80% too. Soon we'll have to start taking things off the menu - or we'd have to charge double to make the same profit.
"But if we did that then we'd have no customers. If the prices don't go down in the next three or four months, we'll need to close.
"People don't realise the struggle independents have - the big companies can survive just fine, but we can't. Everything we sell is hand-made fresh but some people don't want to pay more for a slice of pizza here than in a big chain like Greggs."
Carmine said prices of imported goods shot up after leaving the EU, and just when they were starting to fall again, Covid-19 struck, setting them back even further. And they've had to reduce their opening hours because so many expats returned to their home countries after Brexit, Italian staff are few and far between.
The beginning of the war in Ukraine led to gas and fuel prices skyrocketing, making their overhead costs higher and their transport costs greater. Flour and cooking oil prices also rose in 2022 - so the latest shortages have crippled the family-run business.
Vegetable prices have shot up due to the shortage, along with pasta and rice prices. This leaves Carmine with two impossible options - cull their menu or raise their menu prices.
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He said to maintain the same profit margins he would have to double the cost of everything on their menu.
They have already upped most things by 20% but it's not proving to be enough to compensate for the inflated ingredient costs.
Carmine said: "Every day I wake up and something has happened - some price has gone up. I can't double my prices to make profit because then nobody would come in.
"The big restaurant chains can handle that, but if we don't make profit we don't get paid."
He fears what will happen if wholesale ingredient prices don't fall soon. He said as little as three months could see the end of the business, and leave him and his whole family jobless.
Carmine reckons if the situation has not improved in as little as three months, the family will be in dire straits.
Five months of it would see the doors shut for good. He said: "If people see a price in a shop get higher they think the shop wants more profit. But with us, we don't have a choice.
"The best thing would be if the government could help, especially for the independent places. We need help because if this continues for the next three to five months we have no chance of staying on the market."
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