Supply shortages are ‘strangling’ the economy of the Azores

The complaints and problems reported regarding maritime supplies are common throughout the archipelago. According to Marcos Couto, chairman of the board of the Angra do Heroísmo Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIAH), the Azores are facing “a serious crisis in the supply of essential goods, resulting from serious dysfunctions in the maritime connections that ensure the regular transportation of goods”.

With emphasis on Terceira island, “recognized as the second largest economy” in the region, the representative of the Business Association of the islands of Terceira, Graciosa, and São Jorge guarantees that the waiting time for products to arrive “is not acceptable” and generates “serious losses for companies”.

Marcos Couto highlights the lack of basic necessities on the shelves of commercial areas, “from food products to raw materials for production activity”, the limited supply, and the short expiry dates. “The most recent example and illustration of this logistical dysfunction was the retention of containers with yogurt in Lisbon, making it impossible to transport them in time to Terceira and the other islands of the central group,” explains the president of the CCIAH board. “These products, with a limited shelf life, arrived on the island after the appropriate consumption period or were simply never distributed,” he adds.

According to the Angra do Heroísmo Chamber of Commerce and Industry, “the Azores will continue to lag behind Europe economically” if changes are not made to the current maritime supply model. The realization of the concept of “freeways of the sea”, “widely defended and explained by this Chamber, as a modern, sustainable and integrated logistics model”, would promote “a truly interconnected regional market, with greater economic and territorial cohesion”.

Marcos Couto guarantees that the CCIAH has already requested a meeting with the Regional Secretary for Tourism, Mobility and Infrastructures, Berta Cabral, in the presence of the three shipowners operating in the region. The meeting is scheduled for the end of September, and Marcos Couto hopes that “a solution will emerge from this meeting that can definitively solve the maritime supply problem, which is strangling the development of Terceira and compromising the economic progress of the Azores”.

According to Marcos Couto, the current supply dysfunction “is a concrete case of economic waste, direct damage to local companies and a serious flaw in consumer access to essential goods”. “There are flaws in the frequency with which ships call at the various islands,” he adds.

The economy of Terceira and the quality of life of its population cannot continue to be harmed,” concludes Marcos Couto.

In Diário Insular-José Lourenço, director.

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.