From the north to the south of Brazil, restaurant owners are struggling to adjust their businesses to the sharp rise in meat prices, especially beef. In October alone, meat prices rose 5.81%, the biggest increase in four years.
Over the last 12 months, the increase was 5.81%, outpacing the general inflation average of 4.76%. The expectation is that, in the last quarter of 2024, the price will rise another 7.9% and keep accelerating in 2025.
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This scenario reflects a combination of factors. One of the main ones is the 33% increase in the price of finished cattle on farms, driven by a shortage of livestock and made worse by a severe drought that is damaging pastures.
On top of that, the growth of Brazilian beef exports, helped along by the devaluation of the real, is intensifying competition with the domestic market, which pushes prices even higher for Brazilian consumers.
Lucas Aguiar, owner of Di Casa Churrascaria, in Macapá, describes the difficulty of adapting the menu to constantly rising prices.
“What stands out most is the increase in beef, which changes price every week. Keeping up with that constant climb in values gets in the way of pricing the final product,” he says.
To soften the impact, Lucas chose to raise the prices of drinks and desserts first, but he'll have to increase meat prices in December.
At the other end of Brazil, Áureo Martinez, founder of Usina de Massas in Porto Alegre, is trying to hold off price increases as long as he can. “We have a policy of not raising menu prices very often. Of course there's a limit to what we can absorb,” he explains.
Still, Áureo already notices that customers are limiting their visits to the restaurant to special occasions, which reflects caution with their budgets amid rising inflation.
Lucas has noticed that many customers who were once regulars now save the churrascaria for special moments.
The perception is similar at Áureo's restaurant in Porto Alegre, where he sees an increasingly selective audience that prefers to pick specific moments to eat out.
For business owners across Brazil, this scenario of continuously rising prices demands creative solutions. Lucas invested in logistics adjustments and struck partnerships with local suppliers to cut costs and speed up restocking.
Even with these adaptations, the expected rise in meat prices for 2025, forecast at up to 16.1% for beef, presents a long-term challenge for restaurants across the country.
Owners of establishments in the sector must therefore balance the financial sustainability of their businesses with the need to preserve customer loyalty.
