LP gas shortage put out restaurant stoves

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam
The shortage of cooking gas has put out the stoves of Sri Lanka’s restaurant and hospitality businesses, dealing another heavy blow to the recovering industry. 
The crisis comes just months after the industry had some hope to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic that severely impacted business.

While the shortage of LP gas has been prevalent from the latter part of 2021, restaurants, bakeries, caterers, and those in the hospitality sector did have some access to gas supplies. However, with the country’s worsening foreign exchange crisis, the importation of LP gas has come to a grinding halt. “No LP gas. The hospitality industry will have to close down. This is the current status and we are promoting tourism,” Colombo City Restaurant Collective (CCRC) President Harpo Gooneratne tweeted yesterday sharing the woes of the industry.

Speaking to Mirror Business, Gooneratne said it is becoming increasingly challenging for restaurants to operate and cater to tourists as well as to locals due to the shortage of cooking gas.

“Some of us are just about managing. The whole industry has no gas. This is a big problem,” he asserted.
The government and the Central Bank continue to assure that the fast-reviving tourism sector will bring in the required foreign exchange that will help bail the economy out of the current turmoil. “If they (government) say tourism is a priority, then they should treat it as a priority. But that is not what is happening,” said Gooneratne. A few days ago the All Ceylon Bakery Owners’ Association said that more than a thousand bakeries were forced to close down in the recent weeks due to the ongoing gas shortage.

The hospitality sector was already grappling with the power cuts that are imposed island-wide. Businesses are unable to power generators as an alternative due to the shortage of diesel in the country.