It is easy to overlook sugar in a restaurant kitchen. It dissolves into a cup of tea and sometimes helps a dessert achieve the right texture and finish. But in the city’s restaurants and dessert kitchens, the ingredient is becoming harder to take for granted with some reporting inconsistent supplies and sharply rising procurement costs. The situation has also brought renewed attention to the relationship between sugar and ethanol. Produced by fermenting sugars in sugarcane juice, syrup, and molasses, it is blended with petrol to reduce crude oil imports. Whether this is responsible for the squeeze, however, is contested.
Chennai-based bakery and cafe, Cakewalk, confirm that they haven’t “altered any pricing due to sugar price hike and supplies haven’t been affected as yet from our regular wholesale vendors.” Similarly, founder and head chef Niharika Peri of Eatinn’ Love Trattoria, Bengaluru, has not seen a major disruption. But the restaurant, which uses brown sugar instead of refined sugar, is keeping a close eye on availability. “We are checking availability with suppliers earlier and keeping a buffer rather than waiting until stocks are almost over. However, we don’t want to unnecessarily stock large quantities,” Niharika says, sharing that the process is more about planning ahead and keeping alternative suppliers accessible.
While big chains claim that they haven’t been directly affected by the surge in sugar — a global agricultural commodity, bakers and small-scale business owners reflect upon the short-term supply crisis, as noted by policy analysts. Ophelia D, a pastry chef notes that the sharp rise in sugar prices is beginning to put pressure on businesses across the baking and dessert industry, with home bakers, patisseries, bakeries, and others feeling the impact. She says, “The price of white sugar has climbed from around D62 per kg on August 15 to D72 per kg by September 3 — an increase of nearly 16 per cent in just a few weeks.”
However, Infinitea’s owner, tea master and chef Gaurav Saria says the biggest challenge is not the price. “Availability from regular suppliers has become inconsistent. The biggest difficulty is the unpredictability. When you run an in-house bakehouse everyday, producing breads, cakes and confections, you cannot plan around a supply chain that changes week to week. It forces you to tie up cash in stock you would rather not be holding. That said, we have always offered a strong range of sugar-free options, so we are better insulated than most,” he shares.
Gaurav adds that the cafe has started buying ahead in larger quantities and diversified suppliers. He adds, “It is not the most efficient use of working capital, but right now, continuity matters more.”
Amara Desserts is seeing the impact directly on costs. Co-founder Edwin Daniel says on a typical production day uses around 15-20kg. “Sugar is critical across a significant range of products — in cakes, pastries, and other baked products, but even more so in desserts and Indian sweets because sugar is not merely a sweetner, it is part of the structure of the product,”
Adding to the pressure is the upcoming festive season. “The timing of the price increase is particularly significant. This could put further pressure on prices and production costs. Diwali sweets, cakes, confectionery and other sugar-heavy products could become more expensive if the higher input costs continue,” warns Ophelia.
Choosing an easier route of swapping sugar with some other ingredient isn’t always an option because it can change the finished product. Ophelia explains, “For some products, alternatives such as jaggery or brown sugar can work well. Brownies, for instance, can often accommodate these substitutions with relatively little impact on the finished product. But in delicate sponge cakes and certain confectionery products, the change can substantially affect the texture and appearance.”
Ophelia adds that sugar plays a vital role in determining the texture, sweetness and freezing characteristics of an ice cream. “While jaggery can be used in some formulations, it can produce a noticeably different flavour and texture,” she says. As the eyes shift on alternatives, the price of jaggery has also risen, although its increase has been comparatively less pronounced. “More importantly, however, jaggery cannot always be considered a direct replacement for white sugar without requiring changes to a recipe or affecting the final product,” she notes.
Fajr Qureishi, the co-founder of F&F Hospitality, says if the situation continues, the first visible change would be something as simple as free sugar packets disappearing from tables. “Restaurants may have to start rationing high-sugar beverages, tweaking recipes, and looking at alternatives such as honey or agave, though they can bring higher costs and changes in flavour,” she opines.
For now, kitchens across cities are buying carefully, planning ahead and absorbing what costs they can. If the squeeze continues, customers would eventually notice higher prices or recipe changes. For an ingredient that usually disappears into the food, sugar has now become impossible for the industry to ignore.