Curry houses in dark place without help: Birmingham owner

Birmingham is considered the birthplace of the balti

Restaurants would be forced to charge up to £25 for a curry if they passed on rising costs to customers, an owner has said.

Birmingham is the birthplace of the balti and home of the famous Balti Triangle.

But big increases in energy prices and the cost of ingredients is leaving many curry houses struggling to survive.

And one owner said some would be forced to close without urgent help, with the industry in a "dark place".

Shale Ahmed was among business owners who took part in the Farm-to-Fork Food Resilience conference at Aston University about the plight of the trade.

"The sector's in a spiral effect and it's going down," he said.

"We're really, really struggling. Especially with the most recent price increases, I think it's not going to be sustainable come winter, never mind next year.

"Historically we've had an issue with staff and skill shortage and the pandemic didn't really help.

"Then you've got the rise of the cost of ingredients, which have gone sky high."

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He said energy price rises were unsustainable and this, combined with fewer diners and rising bills, meant an "eye-watering impact on prices" if passed on to customers.

"If you charge accordingly, a curry, even in Birmingham where curries are cheaper than most places in the country, would have charged at about £25-30, which is not sustainable," he said.

"People are not going to come through the doors and we're going to have empty restaurants and takeaways."

Mr Ahmed said the closure of curry houses would mean the end of the trade being passed through generations of families.

"We're going to lose kind of an institution if we're not able to do something.

"All of our family members are in the trade up and down the country and [are experiencing] exactly the same thing.

"It's a really dark time for the industry."