Brace for higher imported food prices, say analysts

Every trip to the gro­cery can serve as a re­minder of how vul­ner­a­ble T&T re­mains to glob­al sup­ply chain shocks.

As ship­ping dis­rup­tions per­sist, freight rates rise and geopo­lit­i­cal ten­sions cre­ate un­cer­tain­ty, food se­cu­ri­ty is emerg­ing as a press­ing con­cern for house­holds al­ready grap­pling with high­er liv­ing costs.

Dr Patrick An­toine, CEO and tech­ni­cal di­rec­tor of the Cari­com Pri­vate Sec­tor Or­gan­i­sa­tion (CP­SO), in­ter­na­tion­al re­la­tions ex­pert Prof Andy Knight and de­vel­op­ment econ­o­mist Mar­lene Attzs are all warn­ing that the coun­try faces grow­ing risks from ex­ter­nal shocks that are dri­ving up the cost of food and threat­en­ing the pur­chas­ing pow­er of or­di­nary cit­i­zens.