Indian restaurants are warning of closures due to the shortage of cooking gas as a result of the Iran war

The Iran war has caused a shortage of cooking gas in India, and restaurants and hotels have warned that they may be forced to close their doors. Authorities have set up a committee to review the requests of industry.

Fuel shortages are a result of the U.S. and Israel war against Iran, which has stopped ship traffic on the Gulf of Mexico and Strait of Hormuz. This has led to higher energy and transport prices, and impacted the exports and production of Gulf producers such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

India, which is the second largest importer of LPG in the world, invoked emergency powers to order refiners last week to increase production for domestic consumption, leaving the hotel industry struggling to obtain enough supply.

We have enough LPG to last two days. "We are working on contingencies," Bert Mueller, founder and CEO of the Mexican food chain California Burrito with over 100 stores in India, from Bengaluru to Chennai in the south, up to Delhi and Noida, said.

We are installing induction stoves and conserving gas at some stores.

India's Oil Ministry said that it had established a panel for reviewing requests for LPG supplies to restaurants and other industries. This was in response to two industry groups.

The National Restaurant Association of India (which represents more than 500,000 restaurants) told the Food Processing Ministry on Monday that "the restaurant industry is primarily dependent on commercial LPG to operate."

In a letter to the government, the NRAI warned that "any disruption will result in a catastrophic closing." Another body, the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), also requested help.

Indian companies raised LPG prices in India for the first time since about a year. The war has pushed up the prices of imports, which account for two-thirds the annual LPG demand.

Qatar, India's biggest supplier of?LNG to the United States, stopped production last week in response to Iran's attacks on Gulf nations as retaliation against Israeli and U.S. military strikes.

DWINDLING SUPPLIES

Bengaluru, India's Silicon Valley in the south, has seen a sharp drop in deliveries. Several restaurants have warned that the kitchens may shut down if this situation is not rectified.

Manish V. Shetty, the owner of Udupi Food Hub in Bengaluru, told reporters that "one of our restaurants did not receive gas bottles today".

He added that "one of our older suppliers?helped" him, as the chain offered immediate payment rather than credit terms for a week or month. "We are also experiencing a rise in the price of sunflower oil, which we use to cook with."

Veerendra kamat, the secretary of the Bengaluru Hotels Association, stated that few restaurants stockpile LPG tanks, due to safety concerns. Instead, they rely on regular replacements.

It's a grave situation. Ananth Nairayan, of the NRAI Bengaluru branch said that most (gas) companies had stopped supplying. He added that restaurants who do stock gas may run out in a matter of weeks. Reporting by Praveen Parmasivam, Nandan Mandayam, and Haripriya Suresh from Chennai; Writing by Abinaya Vjayaraghavan. Editing by Clarence Fernandez.

(source: Reuters)