Restaurants and canteens in Portugal face several problems related to meat supply. Meat suppliers in Portugal usually have annual contracts with big buyers with an agreed fixed price all year round. However, after the Ukraine-Russia war began, meat suppliers started warning buyers about their lack of capacity to fulfill the agreement with the fixed price due to the increase of several production costs for commodities such as corn, fuel, and electricity prices.
Corn is a crucial ingredient for animal feed that makes up around 35-50% of its composition. Portugal further imports around 60% of the consumption of the country's Corn, and 35% of the imports came from Ukraine in 2020.