FERRY prices will not rise above inflation for the next 20 years under the new contract with DFDS, the Economic Development Minister has said. Deputy Kirsten Morel confirmed during an Economic and International Affairs Scrutiny Panel hearing that the new contract would include a cap on future price rises – which he argued would protect Islanders from unexpected price hikes. “That gives businesses a level of certainty they’ve never seen before,” he said. “They know what the ferry prices effectively are going to be for the next 20 years. That’s incredible.” The contract also introduces a simple, fixed-pricing system for moving goods to the Island, which Deputy Morel explained would make it easier to understand the true cost of shipping items to Jersey. “Now we know how much it costs to bring that pallet of goods on the ferry to Jersey. We’ve never known that in the past,” Deputy Morel explained. “So these price rises that we’ve seen, we’ve never known if they’re justified or not, because we’ve had no view of it.” He continued: “We now know how much the ferry costs, and we now know how those prices will rise over the future, linked to RPI. So I think we’ve got much greater visibility. It makes Jersey a much stronger investment prospect, in my view.” The public will also be able to judge how well the ferry service is performing, with Deputy Morel confirming that reliability and punctuality figures will be regularly published. With DFDS preparing to take over from Condor Ferries at the end of March, the company is due to hire 25 former Condor staff members and plans to employ a total of 54 people in Jersey. Looking to the future, DFDS has committed to investing £300 million in new ships by 2028. Plans include a high-speed electric vessel for the St Malo route in 2028, a freight-only ship in 2030, and a slower passenger ship in 2031.