Rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East are rippling through shipping routes, with signals pointing to higher import costs and renewed inflationary pressure for countries like Guyana.
Speaking recently on the Starting Point podcast, Nicholas Deygoo-Boyer, Director of Vreed-en-Hoop Shorebase Inc. (VEHSI), said business operators have already received advance notices from shipping companies warning of increased freight charges, as disruptions threaten the Strait of Hormuz, which handles a significant share of the world’s fuel supply.
“I think it’s estimated about 20% of the world’s supply is cut off …I think that what we took for granted as the world is how much of the product we’re demanding… and how much that product is controlled by a small region and passing through that tiny area,” Deygoo-Boyer said.
He added, “Our National Hardware businesses, we’ve already received heads-up notices from the shipping companies that costs will be going up for importing products…this is not profiteering. This is passing costs on.”
Deygoo-Boyer said the price increases reflect broader global pressures rather than local decisions. “Nobody’s doing this with a smile on their face… but it’s the reality,” he said, noting that inflation will hit hardest for those without financial buffers.
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On imports, he explained that authorities are easing duty calculations. “The government is allowing importers… to use a sort of hypothetical shipping cost based on shipping costs many, many years ago,” Deygoo-Boyer said, adding that this approach provides “an indirect discount so that the population doesn’t feel that inflation.”
Despite these efforts, he warned that options are limited. “We’ve used a lot of tools in the toolkit to try and not pass inflation on to you,” Deygoo-Boyer said.
He said businesses face pressure as they expand and take on debt. “There’s very little cushion that we have that we could absorb the inflation and not pass it on to the population,” he said.
Petroleum products including diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel, move through the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for about one-fifth of the world’s oil trade, tightening markets and pushing up costs worldwide.
The Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) has already reported that gasoline import costs in Guyana jumped 38.5% from February 22 to March 17, 2026, amid global oil market disruption linked to the U.S.–Iran conflict.
Deygoo-Boyer said, “on gasoline and diesel… we used to have an excise tax… that excise tax was taken off.” He added, “The government is… selling you these products with minimal amount of taxes… to what they handed off to you at the pumps”.
