LOCAL shops are feeling the pressure of rising fuel prices. With the cost of oil continuing to rise, freight companies are passing it on to customers.
Terry Quinn (pictured) of Pulp Juice Bar imports all his fruit through Channel Express. He has to pay a surcharge of about 4%. ‘It’s just one of those costs we are going to have to swallow. It’s as simple as that,’ he said. ‘If we pass it on to the customers, we could start to lose them. It’s not easy between this and zero-10. We have all got to just grin and bear it and hope the price will go down.
‘Living in an island which relies on imports for its freight, there is nothing we can do.’ He said he had considered purchasing a freezer van, going to the UK to buy the fruit and bringing it back himself. ‘But that would cost me too,’ he said. ‘It’s a case of six of one and half a dozen of the other.’
Oil hit $100 a barrel for the first time earlier this year and currently stands at a record $122.
Fuel prices and the rise in freight costs will have an impact on the cost of living, even more so if oil prices continue to increase over the next two years, to what some analysts believe could be as high as $200 a barrel.
Phil Soulsby, founder and managing director of Fairtrade store Mondomundi, is feeling the pinch of the oil price.
He imports one or two pallets of products a week from places such as India, Kenya and Tibet.
Each costs between £65 and £70 with a 5% to 5.5% surcharge from the freight company.
‘We do see a difference,’ said Mr Soulsby. ‘We factor in the standard cost of shipping when pricing products, but in the short term we will bear the cost of the surcharge.
‘If the surcharge still exists at the end of the year, obviously when we do our annual review of prices, we will have to factor it in.’
Article posted on 15th May, 2008 - 2.30pm
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