The menú del día in Mallorca's restaurants is changing because of rising costs. Alfonso Robledo, the president of the CAEB restaurants association, says that alternatives are being offered, highlighting the case of "frito". Cooking fried foods is particularly costly in terms of electricity, while oil has become very expensive. Menu options are being limited in order not to have to store as many products and to be able to have fewer cold rooms on.
Robledo also points out that customer spending power has been reduced because of inflation. Nevertheless, he concedes that some restaurants have raised the price of the menú del día by around 10%. Even so, this increase is lower than the cost increases of certain products, e.g. sunflower oil (75%), eggs (31%), milk (24%), rice (23%) and pasta (14%). The Consubal consumers association in the Balearics has calculated a 34.7% increase in the price of the shopping basket. There are certain products, chicken is one, that are being taken off the menu because of the increased expense.
The average price of a menú del día in Mallorca, says Robledo, is between ten and twelve euros; in Palma the average is around 13 euros, one of the three most expensive in Spain. He justifies this because the cost of living in the Balearics is higher than in the rest of the country.
There is the possibility, he accepts, that some restaurants will have to increase prices further, if the costs of food and electricity continue to rise.