The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is urging countries like Barbados to put steps in place to cushion the fallout from increased prices caused by higher international shipping rates.
Its advice, which included increased digitisation of supply chains and enhanced tracking and tracing, came last week as the Central Bank reported that some price increases slowed in the first half of this year, but the cost of commodities like oil was trending up.
Jan Hoffman, head of trade logistics at UNCTAD, said that containerised shipping “underpins the transport and delivery of global manufactured goods, including inputs, parts, components and consumer goods”.
He reported in a new analysis that “on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, the cost of shipping containers has reached historical highs”. (SC)
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