Government is working with the local private sector and regional partners in a major effort to secure a more reliable supply of goods for Barbados.
Minister of Energy, Business Development and Commerce Kerrie Symmonds says the objective is identifying critical produce and maintaining a larger inventory of that produce, adding discussions were ongoing with the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
However, the Senior Minister told the DAILY NATION that “our ideal course of action really requires that we be a lot more self-reliant in terms of expanding local and regional production of food, and doing more agro-processing here in Barbados”.
“We need to source more of our building materials and basic manufactured goods from regional neighbours, wherever it is possible,” he noted.
Delays a problem
Symmonds said Barbados faced a problem of supply delays, “which means that our consumers are confronted with longer delivery times, shortages in the inventory in our stores and the inconvenience of delays in restocking shelves.
“All of these things have implications for the efficiency of our economy. As a consequence, we have been engaged with the private sector on a number of things, both domestically and with regional partners,” he shared.
“We recognise that beyond this situation with the [Panama] Canal, we also have the reality that we are sitting in a hurricane belt, and so for both of those reasons precautionary measures with respect to identifying critical produce and maintaining a larger inventory of that produce are being discussed with the Chamber of Commerce here.
“We are also discussing the need to diversify our supply chain so us to reduce our reliance on one particular corridor of supply.”
The minister said he sensed “tremendous willingness to cooperate with the Government in this. However, many suppliers already have been locked into multi-year contracts, and that poses a challenge”.
“Equally, there are other suppliers who are accepting the need to explore opportunities being created in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname and the wider Caribbean area,” he stated.
“In this regard, we seek to get similar quality and types of traditional products, but under different brands, being imported into Barbados. We have already started to meet with some success with regard to regional and European imports as well.”
Symmonds also said the possibility of pursuing joint procurement “has been raised with our CARICOM partners”.
“This is a matter that would enable us to coordinate the purchase of key supplies, and hopefully, use our collective bargaining power to shave down freight costs, and purchasing costs, and improve basic efficiencies,” he explained.
“We have to agree on the mechanics of a maritime transport system, and its related supportive operational and infrastructural issues. Those are the only ways that we can finally emancipate ourselves from the syndrome of dependency that we have been locked into since we knew ourselves.”
Former president of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry Eddy Abed said importers were feeling the effects of shipping challenges, including those at the Panama Canal and Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East.
“We are seeing major increases [in shipping costs] and, of course, we still have problems with bottlenecks where there’s just not enough ships servicing the cargo coming out of the Orient, not necessarily only into the Caribbean, but feeding both North and South America,” said the managing director of S. Abed and Company Limited.
“And the hubs that they use in the Caribbean, which are primarily Kingston (Jamaica) and Caucedo (Dominican Republic) are choked. The large vessels coming out of the Orient drop the containers off in those ports, and then the feeder vessels come out of those ports and service places like Barbados.” (SC)
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