Dominica Fuel Retailer Association to cease operations until further notice.

The Association of Fuel Retailers in Dominica hereby advises the general public that they will cease operations from September 3, 2021 at 1:00 pm until further notice.

The members have engaged the Ministry of Trade since July 23, 2021 in an effort to avoid the collapse of this critical industry. We further notified the Ministry of Trade on August 24, 2021 that our collapse was imminent and
being an industry which is fully controlled and regulated by the Government, that intervention was critical and should be done with a matter of urgency.

The Ministry is unable to give a timeframe when this critical issue can be resolved. In 2014 it was agreed that there would be yearly reviews between the government and the Retailer’s Association, but this has not occurred since. The members have weathered significant financial strain since, and especially from the beginning of this pandemic, with fuel volumes depressed, costs increasing and margins, controlled by the government, immovable. It should be noted that the retailers believe that it was imperative that the minimum wage be raised for persons to be able to have a decent standard of living. However, the entire impact needed to be analyzed as to the ripple effects on the productive sectors and how they could be mitigated and remedied. This impact is particularly acute in the fuel sector where margins are very low.

The fuel retailers of Dominica can no longer sustain their operations, pay their workers and secure their stations without a clear process of recovering those costs through their operations which is entirely government-mandated, in price, profit, operations, safety, human resource and security costs. We stand ready to continue to serve the public once we are able to do so cost effectively.

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