Business View Caribbean | August 2022

26 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 9, ISSUE 8 consumer, those companies didn’t make as much money but they were able to survive.” BVC: How is the supply chain moving now after so much disruption? Henriquez: “There was a big impact but we’re lucky that Aruba has a steady stream of products coming in. Our importers did a great job in the management of the supply chain of their own inventory systems. Aruba is not as dependent as the U.S. or other places with just in time delivery. We have companies with larger inventories which helped the island. “ATIA actually went out in public and on the news and said, “There is no shortage of food. Maybe the brand you like is not there but there is always an alternative.” So, we never had an issue with a food shortage on the island. However, the freight charges increased our prices a lot because of the supply chain disruption and the issue at the Suez Canal. An example: containers from China that used to be $4,000 per container were going for about $20,000 to get here. That raises the prices a lot for products on the island.” BVC: What issues are you lobbying the government for currently? Henriquez: “As a lobbying organization, we brought forward to government that the only way they can lower prices a bit is by changing the calculation methods of the import for the time being. As long as freight is high and the economy is recuperating, don’t charge import duties on the freight charges. We kept on fighting for that and we’re seeing the fruits, but they’re bringing whole new legislation in for those areas, so we’re doing the best we can. “Because the economy was closed for a long time, Aruba got financial support from The Netherlands. During those times they subsidized the companies here on the island to help us. For this subsidy, they requested the island to make a