Shipping companies are handling demand for supplies from the mainland to Mallorca and the Balearics, which has risen by up to 40% depending on the product. Businesses are stocking up for the summer season, the president of the goods transport association, Ezequiel Horrach, admitting that he has been surprised by the level of demand.
"Orders are growing from one week to the next and in some cases they are between 30 and 40% depending on the product in question. It is not the effect of the hauliers' strike in March, because there is now normality."
The demand is in part due to the fact 90% of hotels will be open in May, but Horrach also points to the strong demand from the likes of bars and restaurants, souvenir shops and supermarkets. "Businesses are ordering everything, and we are inundated with work."
Bartomeu Servera of the distributors association does feel that there is still a hangover from the strike, "but it is true that there is great demand, and our activity is above normal for this time of the year compared with seasons prior to the pandemic".
While prices have risen in certain instances by up to 60%, Servera explains that the main logistical problem that distributors are experiencing lies with production on the mainland. It could be, he says, that there will be a lack of some products, something never previously experienced at the start of the tourism season.
As to rising prices, he adds that the situation is "unsustainable". It will have repercussions, and consumers "will ultimately be the most affected", these including the islands' tourists.
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I think it could be more concerning if deliveries didn’t increase .
More consumers = more demand = more spending. It's rather difficult to have one without the other.