The cost of dining out and ordering in restaurants is rising, with bills potentially rising 5-8% starting this month. This is the first increase in about 1.5 years, as prices of cocoa, coffee, palm oil, and sugar have surged over the past quarter. Cocoa prices have reached a record, reaching over $10,000 per tonne, following disappointing harvests in key producing countries such as Ghana and Ivory Coast. Cocoa prices have doubled in the January-March quarter from the preceding one, and cocoa butter has risen over 150% in just one year.
Eating out and ordering in are getting costlier, as also chocolates. Bills at quick service and fine-dining restaurants may rise 5-8% starting this month as prices of cocoa, coffee, palm oil and sugar have surged over the past quarter.
Obscure offshore funds may have played a role in running up the share price of certain small-cap companies in India. Several of these funds have links with Hari Tibrewala, the Dubai-based ‘hawala operator’ said to be behind the Mahadev Online betting app scandal
Mainland China and Oh! Calcutta operator Speciality Restaurants is in advanced talks for its first set of acquisitions, Anjan Chatterjee, chairman of Speciality said, adding that the listed company has set aside a corpus of Rs 125 crore for M&As this calendar year. On the other hand, Rebel Foods, owner of Faasos and Mandarin Oak, is preparing for an initial share sale early next year, the first cloud kitchen company to go public.