Hawaiian coffee farmers say Trump’s tariffs on Brazil and Vietnam will hurt them, not help
The post Hawaiian coffee farmers say Trump’s tariffs on Brazil and Vietnam will hurt them, not help appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Hawaiian coffee growers aren’t buying Trump’s trade war strategy. They’re straight up telling him: these tariffs won’t help us, they’ll crush us. According to Bloomberg, farmers across Hawaii are now pushing back against the idea that tariffs on Brazil and Vietnam will somehow benefit their operations. They say it’s the opposite. If Trump follows through on slapping a 50% levy on Brazil and 20% on Vietnam, growers in Hawaii will suffer along with the rest of the coffee market. The assumption sounds nice on paper. Since Hawaii is the only U.S. state that grows coffee commercially, maybe these tariffs give local producers an edge, right? But farmers are clear: that’s not how this works. “Tariffs will probably hurt us as much as it would hurt the mainland roasters,” said Suzanne Shriner, who runs Lions Gate Farms and also serves as vice president of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association. Price hikes squeeze demand and crush local growers Shriner says she’s watching this happen in real time. If prices shoot up across the board, coffee drinkers will start skipping their morning brew or switching to cheaper alternatives. Coffee prices are already high due to global production issues. Now throw in tariffs. Starbucks could lose 1.4% of its earnings if the Brazil levy goes from 10% to 50%, according to TD Cowen analyst Andrew Charles. Trump claims he’s just trying to level the playing field. He wants to fix what he calls unfair trade practices and bring production back home. But coffee is not steel. It can’t just be reshored. As Bill Murray (no, not the actor, the head of the National Coffee Association) pointed out in a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative, “coffee simply cannot be grown in most of the United States.” That leaves Hawaii. And here’s the problem: they…
The post Hawaiian coffee farmers say Trump’s tariffs on Brazil and Vietnam will hurt them, not help appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
Hawaiian coffee growers aren’t buying Trump’s trade war strategy. They’re straight up telling him: these tariffs won’t help us, they’ll crush us. According to Bloomberg, farmers across Hawaii are now pushing back against the idea that tariffs on Brazil and Vietnam will somehow benefit their operations. They say it’s the opposite. If Trump follows through on slapping a 50% levy on Brazil and 20% on Vietnam, growers in Hawaii will suffer along with the rest of the coffee market. The assumption sounds nice on paper. Since Hawaii is the only U.S. state that grows coffee commercially, maybe these tariffs give local producers an edge, right? But farmers are clear: that’s not how this works. “Tariffs will probably hurt us as much as it would hurt the mainland roasters,” said Suzanne Shriner, who runs Lions Gate Farms and also serves as vice president of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association. Price hikes squeeze demand and crush local growers Shriner says she’s watching this happen in real time. If prices shoot up across the board, coffee drinkers will start skipping their morning brew or switching to cheaper alternatives. Coffee prices are already high due to global production issues. Now throw in tariffs. Starbucks could lose 1.4% of its earnings if the Brazil levy goes from 10% to 50%, according to TD Cowen analyst Andrew Charles. Trump claims he’s just trying to level the playing field. He wants to fix what he calls unfair trade practices and bring production back home. But coffee is not steel. It can’t just be reshored. As Bill Murray (no, not the actor, the head of the National Coffee Association) pointed out in a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative, “coffee simply cannot be grown in most of the United States.” That leaves Hawaii. And here’s the problem: they…
What's Your Reaction?
