“Since the war in Ukraine, the price of sunflower oil has gone from 1.50 euros per liter to 4.21 euros per liter and we have access to much less stock, explains Juliette Cerdan Zaepffel, owner of the brewery. Rose, in Paris.
Everyone must find solutions to continue to serve fries at a fair price.
We face the shortage by using a mixture of sunflower and rapeseed oils, moreover more expensive than 100% sunflower oil.
But some have chosen to use palm oil.
But this oil costs much less than the others.
To show this, the restaurateur agreed to cook 3 plates of fries and to tell us the raw material costs: 57 cents for the plate of fries in sunflower oil (this is the fat she used before the war in Ukraine, which broke out at the end of February 2022);
61 cents for the one with a rapeseed-sunflower mixture;
32 cents for the palm oil one.
It's twice the price!
"Ukraine is the world's leading producer of sunflower oil," recalls Tancrède Voituriez, an economist specializing in the commodity market.
Exports and then manufacturing were brought to a halt by the conflict.
If the fighting continues, it is very likely that restaurateurs will now opt for palm oil.
Problem: Oil palm cultivation in Indonesia and Malaysia is an environmental disaster.
By watching our Food checking video, you will find out why.
We also organized a blind tasting with the 2021 winner of Top Chef, Mohamed Cheikh.
You will see: the result is unexpected.
