There is nowhere to increase further": The shawarma economy is bursting at the seams Street food shop owners told Business FM about the sharp increase in chicken prices - and it forms a significant part of the shawarma's cost. Entrepreneur Alexander has two points in Yekaterinburg. He sent a direct message to the Business FM Telegram channel comparing prices from the beginning of August: a chicken fillet rose from 360 to 470 rubles. "Shawarma chicken is the most expensive, it's 50-60% of the cost of the food. I raised the price tag by 10-12% in September, but this price increase does not match the price tag in stores. Shawarma cost 280 rubles, I increased it to 320. There is nowhere to raise it anymore," he says. The founder of the St. Petersburg and Vasha chain Pavel Krupin has a similar pain. He takes chicken from wholesalers and calls for catastrophic growth: "The chicken grew by 30% and it grows even more. We raise prices once a quarter, but we are unable to catch up with the raw materials - purchasing power has decreased, and the price increases have hurt it even more." Why does chicken become more expensive, explains the head of the National Meat Association, Sergey Yushin: last year there was a crisis - production increased, plus cheap fillet from China, plus an excess of pork. Competition drove down the price tags, and some poultry farmers were operating at zero profitability. Now production is down by more than 3%, but demand is growing - pushing prices up. "There is more and more processed poultry meat, even where there used to be beef. You can no longer find jellied meat with beef - it is now made from chicken. It is the most profitable protein, the demand is high, but the supply cannot keep up. In addition, logistics, fuel, raising taxes and wages. So the poultry farms are not swimming in gold, no," Yoshin explains. Even the owners of the shawarma shops, who have their own pains, are not "swimming in gold": as Alexander Mekterinburg said, out of four chefs, three failed to renew their patent. Even according to subjective observations, lately there have been fewer points of sale for shawarma.

There is nowhere to increase further": The shawarma economy is bursting at the seams Street food shop owners told Business FM about the sharp increase in chicken prices - and it forms a significant part of the shawarma's cost. Entrepreneur Alexander has two points in Yekaterinburg. He sent a direct message to the Business FM Telegram channel comparing prices from the beginning of August: a chicken fillet rose from 360 to 470 rubles. "Shawarma chicken is the most expensive, it's 50-60% of the cost of the food. I raised the price tag by 10-12% in September, but this price increase does not match the price tag in stores. Shawarma cost 280 rubles, I increased it to 320. There is nowhere to raise it anymore," he says. The founder of the St. Petersburg and Vasha chain Pavel Krupin has a similar pain. He takes chicken from wholesalers and calls for catastrophic growth: "The chicken grew by 30% and it grows even more. We raise prices once a quarter, but we are unable to catch up with the raw materials - purchasing power has decreased, and the price increases have hurt it even more." Why does chicken become more expensive, explains the head of the National Meat Association, Sergey Yushin: last year there was a crisis - production increased, plus cheap fillet from China, plus an excess of pork. Competition drove down the price tags, and some poultry farmers were operating at zero profitability. Now production is down by more than 3%, but demand is growing - pushing prices up. "There is more and more processed poultry meat, even where there used to be beef. You can no longer find jellied meat with beef - it is now made from chicken. It is the most profitable protein, the demand is high, but the supply cannot keep up. In addition, logistics, fuel, raising taxes and wages. So the poultry farms are not swimming in gold, no," Yoshin explains. Even the owners of the shawarma shops, who have their own pains, are not "swimming in gold": as Alexander Mekterinburg said, out of four chefs, three failed to renew their patent. Even according to subjective observations, lately there have been fewer points of sale for shawarma.