Shipments ‘delayed’

A move away from shipping via the United States (US) has led to delays in the arrival of some holiday stock for importers. 

Manager of Abeds, Eddie Abed, said that in a move to avoid the high costs of US-imposed tariffs, they opted to ship from other markets in Asia and Europe, which are longer routes. He said fewer than five per cent of their imports now came out of the US. 

“The importers in this country have had absolutely no choice but to find different source markets ever since these tariffs went into effect in America,” Abed said.

“The knock-on effect was going to add an additional 20 to 50 per cent – depending on what the commodity was – to the retail prices in Barbados, so that was never going to be an option. So we had to find new
source markets.”

Explaining the delays, he said that a container from the US to Barbados would traditionally take two weeks between sailing and the clearing of goods. Other markets like Europe, South America and the Far East could take anywhere from four to ten weeks. 

“Like every other logistics in the world, this time of year, once we get into peak season it’s congested, so delays happen. That has been the result, not only for Abeds, but other importers who found that they’ve had delays of containers, especially as we got into late November and into December,” he added. 

Abed noted that while they were well stocked and had enough merchandise on the shelves, the delays of the shipment would leave retailers with seasonal stock at a loss.

“If it’s seasonal stock you really have very little choice but to hold it for an additional eight months until the Christmas season rolls around again. If it’s stock that sells throughout the year, then you treat it like any other inventory, and you put it out on your shelves, and it will take care of itself, hopefully, during the course. 

“If it’s something that sells throughout the year, but there’s a demand for it, primarily in the season, then you really have to kind of shake your head and figure out what to do. The cost of holding it for a year is just too exorbitant. The cost of replacing it is going to be more, so many of us will just take it at a loss and discount it to get rid of it,” he added. 

Additionally, they have faced no mentionable delays with clearing goods from the port compared to last year. 

Meanwhile, businessman Andrew Boyce said while they also had not faced any shipping delays for their Christmas goods, they were scaling down on shipping from the US and also looking elsewhere.

“We can’t circumvent it, everybody will be affected to a large extent. The wholesalers are going to be affected and they will pass it down to the retailers so we can’t avoid that . . . That is goods out of the US and we have to search for alternative sources,” he said. 

Efforts to reach president of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Paul Inniss, were unsuccessful.

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