With the arrival of the monsoon also comes a risk of business declining. But exaggerated talk in the mainstream media is the greater threat.
The rains finally arrived in India last month and while restaurateurs will trust their properties remain dry, the hope is that business does not dry up.
This year particularly, a flood of reports have proclaimed the dangers of eating out during monsoon. But what exactly are the risks and are they as serious as the mainstream media is making out?
Certainly hygiene, though never unimportant, becomes an even greater priority. “Along with the monsoon comes a surfeit of diseases like food poisoning, diarrhoea and cholera,” says Anuja Agarwal, a nutritionist at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
JohnsonDiversey recently released its report ‘Food Safety During Monsoons’. It highlighted a number of good practices for caterers: use reputable suppliers; use disinfected water for drinking and washing; disinfect utensils and surfaces; cook and store at the correct temperature; dispose of garbage regularly and maintain your own personal hygiene too. But these are hardly things conscientious restaurateurs should not be doing anyway.
The risk of delivery disruptions too increases during the rains. “The monsoon’s disruption of deliveries is the only business aspect we cannot control,” says Aashiyana Shroff, owner of Vong Wong restaurant in Mumbai. “But we expect this every year.”
And the intensity of the rains can affect pricing too. Nitin S Kothari, owner of the Peter Cat and Mocambo restaurants in Kolkata, says: “If there is very less rainfall, prices of fresh vegetables and poultry shoot up. Excessive rainfall triggers off the same price rise.”
But he highlights how buying forward contracts can ensure stability. “We safeguard against price hikes by fixing the prices of all fresh vegetables and poultry for one year. This works out fine and though we perhaps pay slightly more, at the end of the year it averages out.”
Rumblings of a 15% hike have already begun though a hike, if it happens, will be in August’s first week.
However, an investigation by Catering Insight has found that marketing efforts by restaurateurs during monsoon are being neglected.
A straw poll of consumers found that people will cancel a dinner reservation if it involves travelling in the rain. One young diner says: “I love to eat out, but if it’s raining hard it is easier to stay home and not worry about the inconvenience.”
That should signal a clear sign to restaurant owners that consumers need more encouragement than normal to leave the comfort of their homes. Yet none that we spoke to had any plans to do so. Moshe Shek, owner of Moshe’s in Mumbai, says: “We make absolutely no effort in marketing our outlets.”
Anu Bakshi, owner of New Delhi based Chinese outlet Fa Yian, also admits to having no marketing plans this monsoon.
Nevertheless lessons could be learnt from India’s hotels, which every year create new, enticing ‘Monsoon Packages’ to bring in the business.
But most appear confident that the scaremongering talk in the national press can be taken with a pinch of salt.
Nonetheless Brijesh Singh Rathore, JohnsonDiversey’s sales head for Western India, Sri Lanka & Maldives, says: “Impressive looking buffets are often great at disguising stale food. Hot food should be above 60° Celsius, cold food at all times should be below 5° Celsius.”
But Kothari claims hygiene has never been a problem: “All our curries are pre-prepared and our tandoori kebabs are marinated overnight, but we have never experienced or noticed anything unusual during the monsoon.”
It would appear that the greatest menace to the foodservice industry in the monsoon is clumsy journalism that magnifies risks that are present anyway.
