The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A senior Sysco Bahamas executive yesterday said they had “never seen prices this high” as the global supply chain crisis continues to impact the country’s post-COVID recovery.

Tiffani Evans, director of merchandising at the former Bahamas Food Services, one of the country’s largest food distributors/wholesalers, told a webinar organised by TCL Group that the pandemic had shown that “if one of the wheels breaks down in countries like the US” then the impact can rapidly spread to the entire world.

With the globe “fighting for container space”, due to the backlog at multiple US ports and especially on the west coast, she added that Sysco Bahamas had taken steps to “make sure we build enough inventory for things we cannot get easily in the US”.

Ms Evans said the wholesaler had “been working tirelessly” to go outside established supply channels to source product globally from locations outside the US such as Brazil and Europe, although the greater distances involved meant delays and longer delivery times.

“We’ve become a lot more flexible in the brands that come in,” she added. The Bahamian subsidiary has been able to draw on its US parent’s own brands “to fill the gap” in its product range caused by the supply chain crisis, which has “helped to save consumers a little bit of money because these products are made for us”.

Summing it up, Ms Evans said: “I have never in all my years in this industry seen prices this high, and a lot of it is due to inflation.... There are a lot of challenges. I am hoping it will be over in six months but there are a lot of challenges.”

Her comments give an indication of the food price hikes that may await Bahamian consumers in early 2022. Rupert Roberts, Super Value’s president, said earlier this week that while the supermarket chain has been able to “hold the line” on prices through Christmas they may increase by between 10-15 percent in the New Year.

With the entire Bahamian economy impacted by the global breakdown, Michael Pratt, the Bahamian Contractors Association’s (BCA) president, told the webinar that construction is “facing the perfect storm” as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic’s fall-out.

“There are delays in steel, lumber and other metals. Some items are backed up for as long as six months,” he added, revealing that while contractors had been able to previously take three-four days to recover imported containers and get them to the job site, shipping companies were now coming for them the same day “to get them back into the supply chain”.

Mr Pratt said delayed and backlogged raw material deliveries also meant “there is no way to guarantee” pricing or when construction would be finished, which was causing havoc for persons relying on mortgage financing due to doubts on whether there was enough money to complete. This, he added, was causing losses for both contractors and consumers.

Daynan Tynes, an Abaco Chamber of Commerce director, said the island’s post-Dorian reconstruction continued to be impacted by materials price hikes of 35-40 percent compared to one year ago.

“Our supply chain has been really hampered by being unable to get large shipments in from suppliers,” he said. “Right now we have a labour shortage in Abaco. We have a labour shortage because we don’t have anywhere for people to stay and live. People are not coming home because they have no homes, and if they have homes they have no school.

“Demand has increased but supply has decreased. Containers for trailers are more expensive than before. There are not enough trailers, and that creates a bottleneck for the supply chain coming in. We are now at a point where most of Abaco is ready to start in the Marsh Harbour area, where we have a lot of development supposed to be coming.

“That has basically been on hold because we don’t have the materials,” Mr Tynes added. “We can’t get the materials, and whatever the price of those materials were a year or two ago, they have increased by 35-40 percent.

“If you have a loan or insurance to build your home, you don’t have enough money to build it. This has definitely affected Freeport, Abaco and Grand Bahama in the supply chain, getting both materials and labour.” 

Mr Tynes said persons were starting to switch from using ‘grade A’ wood to that of a lower standard for construction, while obtaining air conditioning units and parts had become extremely difficult.

“We cannot get all the materials for these things,” he added. “The raw materials are not there. We have shortages in copper, plastics, metals and graphites. You have a shortage of all these things.”