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Restaurateur bemoans high cost of foodstuffs

By Eniola Daniel
20 November 2021   |   2:40 am
The Managing Director of Iya Yusuf Restaurant, Yusuf Owoyemi Olatunji, has bemoaned the high cost of food items in the country.

[FILES] A local food marketplace

The Managing Director of Iya Yusuf Restaurant, Yusuf Owoyemi Olatunji, has bemoaned the high cost of food items in the country.

Olatunji spoke while announcing the restaurant’s plan to open a branch in Ikota, Lagos.

According to him, the high cost of food items has forced restaurant operators to reduce the quantity of food they serve as they strive to remain afloat.

He said: “A bag of rice used to be sold at between N10,000 and N15,000 but now it sells for N28,000 and above. We will have problems with customers if we attempt to reduce the quality of what we are selling. So, we just have to manage ourselves around it. The hike in the prices of food items is affecting our operation in terms of profit. It’s a big issue we have to deal with. It affects our profit margin, but we hope and believe that customers will understand if we decide to increase prices too but we can’t change price every week.

“Before now, we used to sell a wrap of Amala for N50 but based on the cost of items in the market, we decided to increase it to N100.”

Speaking on the new branch, which will officially open on November 28, 2021, he said: “We decided to move to Lagos based on the yearning of the people who have visited our restaurant in Ilorin and Abuja. In the last 37 years, we have improved from Amala corner to prominence, but still, maintain selling cheap food with the same quality.

“We recently opened the Abuja branch. Based on calls to move to Lagos, we decided to hearken to the calls. Our hope is to expand and continue to provide affordable food.”

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