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UniCafe lunch prices to go up by €0.50 from 1 October

The decree issued by the Government on 22 Sept 2022 increases the maximum price of university students’ meals from 1 Oct onwards. The price of a student lunch will go up by €0.50 in all UniCafe restaurants. The lunch prices of other customers will also be increased by the same amount.

The pricing at student restaurants is tied to the Government Decree stating that from 1 Oct onwards, the maximum price of a subsidised student meal is €5.50. Special meals may be more expensive.

The increase will be implemented at UniCafe restaurants in full. From 1 Oct, the price of a student lunch is €3.10 (vegan lunch) or €3.20 (other lunch options) per meal.

The lunch prices of the University of Helsinki staff as well as other customers will also go up by €0.50.

Students and staff members will continue to pay €0.10 less for a vegan meal than for other lunch options. In line with the values of Ylva, who runs the UniCafe restaurants, the two-tier pricing aims to support responsible lunch choices, even though high-quality vegan ingredients are not automatically cheaper than other ingredients.

“The upcoming increase will provide temporary relief to the very difficult situation of Finland’s student restaurants, yet this is not enough. We would really already have needed an increase of at least one euro, and there is no reason to assume that the wild rises in the prices of raw ingredients are about to end here,” says Ylva’s Restaurant Business Director Anne Immonen.

In a short period of time, the exponential rise in the raw ingredient costs of food has deprived student restaurants of their operational preconditions. In addition to the prices of raw ingredients, wages in the hospitality industry as well as fuel costs with direct impact on the price of transport have also increased significantly. Unlike other businesses in the industry, student restaurants are not permitted to independently decide to transfer the increase of costs into their own prices.

“For students, the significance of a daily balanced and nutritious meal is great, and even though the upcoming price increases are necessary to the restaurants’ survival, they should not lead to unequalisation among students, who already live on a tight budget. It is to be hoped that the increase of the meal subsidy, planned to take effect from the beginning of 2023, would cover a larger share of the maximum lunch price than the currently planned €0.25,” Immonen states.

The amount of the meal subsidy is decided in the state budget, and the decision will be made by the Parliament by the end of this year.


This is how lunch prices will change at UniCafe from 1 Oct:

Students

Vegan lunch €3.10, other lunch options €3.20
Daily special €5.40

Postgraduate students

Vegan lunch €5.45, other lunch options €5.55
Daily special €7.40

Staff

Vegan lunch €6.90, other lunch options €7.00
Daily special €8.50

Normal price, other customers

Lunch €8.70
Daily special €10.20

Staff and normal-priced lunch includes coffee/tea.

More information:

Anne Immonen
Business Director, restaurants
+358 40 512 5008
anne.immonen@ylva.fi

Read more (in Finnish):
valtioneuvosto.fi/opiskelija-aterian-enimmaishintaa-korotetaan