“Perhaps almost half of supermarket products will be affected by these tariffs, whether they are the whole product or just ingredients,” food industry analyst Phil Lempert told NPR.
10% global tariffs, country details on the “worst criminal” list
President Donald Trump plans to enact a 10% tariff on imports and mutual tariffs in all countries on the “worst criminal” list.
With President Donald Trump’s self-proclaimed “liberation day” over, American grocery shoppers’ wallets may soon feel the impact of mutual tariffs imposed on some of the country’s trading partners earlier this week.
“Perhaps almost half of supermarket products — about 40,000 products — will be affected by these tariffs, whether it’s the whole product or just ingredients,” food industry analyst Phil Lempert said.
Trump’s recent round of tariffs goals is to increase domestic production by making international companies more expensive to ship products to the US on Wednesday. The White House has announced mutual tariffs on countries charging US import fees. Reuters.
“For decades, they tore us apart us to us so that history hasn’t hit us. We’re much better than them, but that’s a fair amount of money for the country,” Trump told reporters on March 30, according to ABC News.
Mutual tariffs will be incurred after Trump collected 20% tariffs on imports from China and decided earlier this year to collect import duties from Mexico and Canada. With inflation and tariffs having a serious impact on the US economy, grocery shoppers may need to be diligent with future coupons.
Here are some grocery items that could be seen as price increases due to mutual tariffs that Trump has enacted.
Are avocados and other fruits affected?
The impact on fruit prices could be mixed bags, and tropical varieties from Central and South America could be affected, but other varieties of recent neighbors that are fleeing the mutual tariffs of Canada and Mexico – Trump.
According to the USDA (USDA), the US received 51% of fresh fruit from Mexico in 2022 and 2% from Canada. Both countries were not following the White House and Trump country charts.
Other top sauces of imported fruit include Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Peru. All three countries were on the White House charts and received a mutual tariff of 10%.
According to the University of Florida Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences, Guatemala, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Costa Rica, Colombia and Honduras are the leading exporters of bananas to the United States. Guatemala also ships melons, plantains and papaya, and Costa Rica said it exports pineapples, avocados and mangoes.
“These products do not have long shelf life. Due to customs duties, we will face serious issues in both price and availability,” Lempert said of the fruits, according to NPR.
Some fruits may see an increase in costs, but avocados may not be one of them.
Avocados are one of the Mexican food products that the US can continue to import without tariffs, Reuters reports. Of the fresh avocados imported from the US, 87.6% come from Mexico, according to USDA data as of January 7th.
Will the cost of vegetables increase?
According to the USDA, about 69% of American fresh vegetables came from Mexico, and 20% in 2022 came from Canada.
“The US receives fresh vegetables from over 125 different countries, but most imports come from Mexico and Canada,” the USDA said.
Between 1998 and 2020, fresh vegetable imports to the United States increased by nearly 200%, and the value of fresh vegetable imports went above $7.6 billion a decade ago, according to government agencies.
While vegetables in Mexico and Canada may not be affected by mutual tariffs, there may be an increase in vegetables-costs from other countries on the White House chart, including Guatemala, Costa Rica, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Honduras, Morocco and China.
Seafood can be more expensive
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the US imports most of its seafood up to 85%. Because of this, and as several countries supplying fish and shellfish to the US have been hit hardest by tariffs, seafood will likely become even more expensive in the future.
According to the USDA, Chile, India, Indonesia and Vietnam are the largest suppliers of imported seafood. All four countries are on the White House charts, but Vietnam suffered the highest tariffs at 46%, followed by Chile (10%), India (26%) and Indonesia (32%).
“About 70-80% of the US seafood supply is imported, so it’s not the number that the US domestic industry can plug in,” said the Food Industry Association’s Vice President of Tax, Trade, Sustainability and Policy Development. “So you can see that costs in the seafood sector will go up.”
Coffee can be difficult to buy
According to the USDA, the USDA is the world’s largest coffee importer. Approximately 80% of US roasted imports come from Latin America, with over 60% coming from two countries, Brazil and Colombia.
Brazil and Colombia are both on the White House charts, and both were hit by mutual tariffs of 10%.
Imported alcohol markets are “highly likely to invade”
According to NPR, Lempert said the alcohol market imported due to tariffs is likely to “invade.”
According to the USDA, top sources of wine include the European Union (France, Italy, Spain), New Zealand and Australia. European countries were hit by mutual tariffs of 20%, while New Zealand and Australia received 10% tariffs.
The US imports most of its beer from Mexico and Canada, as well as the Netherlands and Ireland, both of which have been hit by 20% tariffs. Lempert added that tariffs on China and other aluminum producers will also double-affect beer sold in cans.
Olive oil prices could skyrocket
The European Union, particularly Spain, Italy and Greece, are the top sources of olive oil.
“The price of olive oil has passed through the roof,” Lempert said according to NPR. “They’ll be even higher.”
Certain cheeses imported from the European Union, particularly Italy, France, Spain and the Netherlands, can have higher prices. Parmigiano-reggiano, Brie and Gouda are some cheeses that can cost you.
Which grocery items may not increase costs?
Grocery items that may not grow much, mainly because they are produced domestically include beef and rice. Both of these items may remain relatively the same, but they may rise slightly.
Although 90% of beef consumed in the US is produced domestically, tariffs could add to existing price increases that have raised costs to historic highs, and according to the USDA, US herds of cows are the smallest since 1951.
Like beef, rice sold in the US is produced domestically, but nearly a third is imported, mainly Thai jasmine rice and Indian basmati rice. Thailand and India are both on the White House charts.
Contributors: James Powell, Rachel Barber, Lori Comstock/ USA TODAY
