Why South Indian restaurants may raise the prices of, or remove, its most popular dishes

The owner of a South Indian restaurant in Windsor said he may have to remove or raise the prices of his most popular items — following India's move to ban the export of all non-basmati rice.

Earlier this month, the Indian government announced it would be making the move to keep domestic prices down and increase availability after rain and drought surged prices there.

However, that has resulted in the panic-buying of rice in stores across Canada.

One of the most hard-to-find types of rice right now is idli rice. Combined with lentils, idli rice is ground up into a mixture which ferments into a batter.

That batter is used to make idlis and dosas. Substituting idli rice for any other type of rice will result in the batter not fermenting properly.

"We can't make dosas with basmati rice so definitely we [may] need to stop the dosas and idlis," said Suresh Varikuti, owner of Lemon Grill Indian Restaurant in Windsor.

According to Varikuti, dosas and idlis make up 60 per cent of his business.

"I’m trying to buy 50 bags [of idli rice] but I can’t find a single bag in Windsor. I also tried using Instacart but I still can't find anything," he said.

One of the main reasons why stock of idli rice is so hard to find is because some stores that sell it have restricted the number of bags customers can purchase at one time.

As news of the ban spread on July 20, Namaste Indian Supermarket owner Parimal Parikh said panic ensued. Some customers responded by showing up the next day and putting "15 to 17 bags in their carts."

A sign in the store's rice aisle now informs customers they can only leave the store with two bags of rice.

Lemon Grill Indian Restaurant owner Suresh Varikuti, showing off a large pot of dosa and idli batter in Windsor, Ont. on July 31, 2023. (Sanjay Maru/CTV News Windsor)

"All the South Indian restaurants keep on asking me if I can supply them. We are trying to sell it in such a way that it reaches the maximum people and doesn't just end up in one person's home," said Parikh. "We just want to appeal to the people not to go in panic-buying because if they stock it up in their basement, people who are actually in need of rice will not get it." 

Parikh added his store currently has enough non-basmati rice to last him another "three to four weeks." After that, he said, there is no certainty about when he will be able to restock his supply.

To offset the limited supply, the store has been forced to raise the prices of its rice bags by five dollars.

"We’re trying to talk to our wholesale suppliers as fast as we can since we’re here in Windsor, but all of them are being sold out in the Toronto area," said Parikh.

According to Sylvain Charlebois, professor in food distribution and policy professor at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, many Canadians have resorted to stockpiling rice.

"So it doesn't surprise me that some grocers will want to discipline consumers not to buy too many packages at once, making sure there is plenty for everyone," he said.

But despite rice going empty on some shelves, Charlebois said India’s export ban should have little impact on the availability of most other types of rice, such as Jasmine rice, basmati rice, brown rice and sushi rice.

"Some community groups will rely more on rice compared than others. Let’s face it. After water, rice is the most utilized ingredient in the world," Charlebois added.

As for Lemon Grill Indian Restaurant, the owner said his current stock of idli rice will last him about one week. Now, Varikuti is scrambling to find more bags wherever he can.

But while the cost of the idli rice has gone up — and its availability has diminished — Varikuti said he's worried about passing that increase down to his customers out of fear they will not come back.

"Right now, most of my dosas are $14.99 each. If I increase it more, it's too much," he said. "When it comes to dosa and idli, there is no alternate for idli rice."