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Double curry blow

13/ 2/2008

THE curry - one of the nation's favourite dishes - is under a dual threat, the industry warned today.

The cost of rice, one of the staple ingredients, is soaring on world markets.

And restrictions on immigrants from Bangladesh is causing an acute labour shortage.

Alex Waugh, director of the Rice Association, said prices were up 60% year on year and the price of basmati rice, one of the most popular varieties in the UK, had almost doubled.

Big producers like India and China had restricted their exports, along with Vietnam and Egypt, and there were now "rapidly declining stocks" in the world.

This will feed into the price British consumers pay for rice at shops and in restaurants.

Mr Waugh said: "If you are a restaurant owner and you are buying a lot of rice you either reduce your margins or you put your prices up.

"A cost increase of that magnitude is going to feed through and this will probably see the price of a curry increase."

Mr Waugh also warned that the price rises would hit the Bangladeshi community in the UK as rice is a staple part of the diet.

The shortage of workers in curry house kitchens has been caused by a new points-based system for lower skilled workers introduced by the Border and Immigration Agency.

At a meeting in London on Monday night, Keith Best, chief executive of the Immigration Advisory Service, discussed ways in which the curry industry can put the case to the Government that it is in serious trouble because of the restrictions.

Mr Best said: "Despite many meetings with the Immigration Minister, who states that he understands the plight of this important industry to the UK, nothing is being done to improve the situation."

He added: "For many low-income families the only chance they have of eating out is to go for a curry."

Mr Best said the Government had mistakenly assumed that vacancies in the curry industry would be filled by Eastern Europeans.

But he said they have "no cultural sensitivity towards or understanding of the curry industry".

He added: "It is a sad comment on Government policy that it favours Eastern Europeans over citizens of Commonwealth countries such as Bangladesh whose preceding generations have contributed so much to the British economy and continue to do so."

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