Cecily Habimana, co-founder of Sew Creative Lounge, a sewing school in Mount Rainier, Maryland, normally imports her fabric from China and West Africa, but international shipping and customs delays have become unaffordable for the small business owner.
“I can’t afford to bear the cost of a big shipment so I pre-order fabric, but this season because of delays, there is no way for me to know exactly when it’s coming in,” Habimana told Capital News Service.
With the holidays approaching, small businesses like Habimana’s are feeling the brunt of supply chain delays that have drawn the intercession of the White House and the attention of Congress.
“I can’t remember a time in history when (the supply and demand model) has been inverted, where one side dictates to the other in a way that has never happened before,” Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Baltimore, said at a Wednesday hearing of the House Small Business Committee’s oversight, investigations and regulation subcommittee. The panel heard testimony about the impact of supply chain disruptions on small companies.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Natalie Drum over at WTOP
