Shipping fees ‘driving up prices’

Seasonal shipping fees could lead to permanent cost increases for Barbadian consumers and manufacturers.

That warning came recently from the Barbados Manufacturers’ Association (BMA) and the Barbados Consumer Empowerment Network (BCEN).

In a joint statement, the two organisations voiced concern that the growing use of peak season surcharges by shipping lines servicing the Caribbean, while intended to be a temporary, had “effectively become a near-permanent increase in freight costs...