Tales of the Tariffs - EFCO

EFCO Products  Food and Beverage Ingredient Manufacturing

Editors Note: The Council of Industry is collecting stories from its members chronicling the impacts (both negative and positive) of the ongoing and evolving implementation of new Tariffs. We will also share these stories with elected officials.

A significant amount of our raw materials (fruits, cocoa, stabilizers, chemicals, etc.) are sourced from countries such as Mexico, Canada, Indonesia, Thailand, Ivory Coast and the EU. We export to the Middle East, Asia, the Caribbean and Central America.

The tariffs as planned would increase our costs considerably and weaken our competitive position. As of mid-April we have already seen some prices of materials increase from Asian suppliers.

The current tariff strategy has been incredibly disruptive to our business. Customers overseas are concerned about continuing to source from the US and this erosion in confidence is extremely troubling.

From an input perspective, these tariffs would force us to raise our prices significantly in an environment where demand has weakened due to customer fatigue with inflation prior to tariffs and weakened consumer and business sentiment.