Prices are rising, staff are in short supply: in Kyiv, every fifth restaurant is at risk of closing, experts say

Restaurants and other food-service businesses in Kyiv are facing the threat of mass closures, with as many as one in five restaurants in the capital potentially shutting down.

This was reported by the press service of the “Restaurateurs of Ukraine” analytical center.

According to experts, the main reasons are prohibitively expensive generators, higher electricity costs, and staff shortages.

Marina Kovalchuk, the CEO of a restaurant group, said that one of her locations does not generate enough profit to buy a suitable generator.

“We are forced to suspend the project’s operations until weather conditions are restored. We need a good 80-kilowatt generator here, which today costs 1.5 million hryvnias. This location does not have a sufficient level of profitability to free up that kind of money,” Kovalchuk explained.

She added that the government’s restaurant support program is not working because the proposed fuel payments and zero-percent “energy loans” of up to 10 million hryvnias are available only to restaurants that do not sell alcohol—something that is practically nonexistent.

In addition, prices for some products rose by up to 70% in January–February due to more expensive imports from Europe. In the near future, restaurateurs’ higher costs are likely to be reflected in menu prices, which will probably continue to rise.

Earlier, it was reported that cafés and restaurants could be fined if they add a “generator fee” to the bill without warning customers.

It is also recalled that in January, amid a blackout that left parts of Kyiv without heating and water, cafés and restaurants were already closing en masse.