Barbados is working with the private sector and regional governments to line up new suppliers of food and building materials, as delays at the Panama Canal and Strait of Hormuz push up freight costs and empty store shelves.

Minister of Energy, Business Development and Commerce Kerrie Symmonds told the Daily Nation that government has been meeting with the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry to identify critical goods and build larger inventories of them. He said the current strain, layered on top of Barbados’ position in the hurricane belt, has left consumers facing longer delivery times, thinner stock on shelves and slower restocking.

“All of these things have implications for the efficiency of our economy,” Symmonds said, adding that talks are underway both domestically and with regional partners.

The Minister said Barbados is looking to cut its dependence on a single supply corridor by sourcing “similar quality and types of traditional products, but under different brands” from Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname and the wider Caribbean. He said the country has already had some success with regional and European imports, though many local suppliers remain locked into multi-year contracts that limit how quickly they can switch sources.

Symmonds also said he has raised the idea of joint procurement with CARICOM partners, a mechanism that would let member states pool purchases and use their combined weight to negotiate down freight and buying costs. He said any such arrangement would require agreement on a regional maritime transport system and the infrastructure to support it.

“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,” he said.

Eddy Abed, former president of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry and managing director of S. Abed and Company Limited, said importers are already absorbing sharply higher shipping costs. He pointed to a shortage of vessel capacity moving cargo out of Asia to both North and South America, and said the region’s main trans-shipment hubs, Kingston in Jamaica and Caucedo in the Dominican Republic, are congested.

“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,” Abed said.

Symmonds said his preferred long-term fix is less about finding new import sources and more about reducing the need to import at all. He said Barbados should aim to be “a lot more self-reliant” by expanding local and regional food production and agro-processing, and by sourcing more building materials and manufactured goods from Caribbean neighbours where possible.