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SINGAPORE, Sept 27 (PTI) India’s ban on wheat exports since May has hit Singaporean restaurants, which serve mostly Punjabi’s soft and chewy crepes, as the North Indian basic food of similar quality is imported from India. The cost of raw materials has tripled among other countries in the Ukraine war, media reports on Tuesday.
Supermarket chain FairPrice said supplies of wheat flour have been low due to increased demand over the past few weeks, possibly due to the ban on wheat and flour in India.
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According to The Straits Times, FairPrice’s suppliers are sourcing wheat flour from a number of countries including Sri Lanka, Australia, Canada and the US.
“The (wheat) flour shortage will have a very serious impact on our business. We cannot pass all the costs on to our customers, we have to work hard to keep prices low,” said Mathavan Adi Balakrishnan, managing director of Sakunthala’s, which is the One of the leading restaurants in the area. Little India here.
The restaurant used to buy wheat flour from India at S$5 ($3.48) per kilo, but flour from Dubai now costs S$15 ($10.45) per kilo.
According to the United Nations, Singapore imports 200,000 to 250,000 tonnes of wheat and 100,000 to 120,000 tonnes of wheat flour each year. In 2020, 5.8% of Singapore’s total wheat flour imports came from India, The Business Times reported.
Most of the city-state’s wheat flour imports come from Australia, the United States and Canada.
Wheat flour from India, although only a small part of total imports, is sought after by Indian restaurants as it produces soft and chewy crepes, a staple in India.
India, the world’s second-biggest wheat producer, halted exports of the grain and its flour in May to limit soaring domestic prices after a heatwave dried up the crop and affected wheat supplies.
The ban comes as Ukrainian wheat exports are constrained by the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war.
Ukraine was once the world’s fourth-largest supplier of wheat, accounting for about 9 percent of global wheat trade.
Some restaurants have suspended menu items such as crepes, poori bhaji and tandoori because they all require wheat flour to make.
“This will be a huge change, especially for people like Punjabi workers who eat up to six crepes per meal a day,” said S. Mahenthiran, director of Gayatri, a popular restaurant in Singapore’s Little India district.
Punjabi workers make up the majority of Mahenthiran’s customers.
Shops here that mainly import wheat flour from India are looking for alternatives.
Megastore Mustafa Centre on Serangoon Road is looking to import wheat flour from the Middle East and the UK.
Its purchasing director Mohd Saleem said Mustafa shoppers are likely to pay more for flour due to higher shipping costs. He did not specify how much of an increase consumers can expect.
Radhika Abbi, 51, owner of Mustard Singapore, a Punjabi and Bengali restaurant, said many Indian restaurants here will have to contend with higher costs once their existing stocks of Indian flour run out.
She used to pay S$2 (US$1.39) per kilo for wheat flour, but now considers paying closer to S$8 (US$5.57).
When forced to switch to another source of wheat flour, Abbi said, the quality and texture of her restaurant’s crepes suffer.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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