Berkshire County — On February 1, the White House announced it was preparing to place 25 percent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, with a 10 percent tariff to be exacted on products from China. The document stated the measures were necessary “to hold Mexico, Canada, and China accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country.”
Although the tariffs slated to be put on products imported from Mexico and Canada have since been paused for a month, the tariff on Chinese exports remains, with the possibility that additional similar actions will be taken toward other countries.
For Berkshire County residents, those international measures may have far-reaching effects, changing the way local shoppers organize their meals and farmers sell their wares.
The shelves of 200-acre Taft Farms are laden with imported produce, a must given New England winters, said owner, CEO, and Executive Chef Paul Tawczynski. The business includes a year-round farm store in Great Barrington.
Asparagus, in season now, is imported from Mexico, along with bell peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, and some citrus, said Tawczynski. Those items can be had from his farm during the milder growing season, “but there’s not a grocery store in North America right now that doesn’t have Mexican bell peppers,” he said.
According to Tawczynski, Canada subsidizes its agriculture industry. With longer hours of daylight, its greenhouse produce is grown more inexpensively than in other regions, including peppers and tomatoes that need longer hours of daylight. “When you go into the grocery store and you see big, juicy beefsteak tomatoes in the middle of winter, those are Canadian, not Mexican,” he said.
Tawczynski estimates that most of the impact from the tariffs will be felt in traditional grocery stores, with those businesses having to maintain contracts with suppliers. “That’s how they offer the prices that they do,” he said. “So, when those prices go up by 25 percent, they’re going to have to pass that along.”
For Tawczynski, the curtailment of federal funds announced last week and then rescinded could have the greatest impact on his farm and other farmers. The January 27 executive order provided that all federal grants and loans will be paused to allow federal agencies a review of financial-assistance programs and other activities, ensuring those measures align with that of the new administration and ferreting out those programs “implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”
“That federal aid shutdown that was just wagged in front of farmers included all of the aid to farms,” Tawczynski said. “That would be huge. We’re not a subsidized farm, but where you’re going to see that is in flour, corn, beans, corn oil, cornflower—all of the things that are derived from corn. If you were to see the subsidies to those farmers go up, that’s where you would see an increase in every single type of grocery that you could possibly imagine. And that’s what we’re most concerned about.”
Tawczynski said the results of the tariffs aren’t readily known now because, time-wise, any products currently in the supply chain won’t be impacted by the order. “At this point everyone in the market is in a wait-and-see-type situation,” he said. “It’s a little too early to see where the chips are going to fall. It is a very fluid situation.”
Come December, however, that may be a different story. With about 95 percent of the sales of wide-cut Christmas trees, wreaths, and greens emanating from Canada, the tariffs will affect those local offerings, even at Big Y and Home Depot, Tawczynski said. The greens products are made from balsam and, although that type of wood grows in the U.S., it tends to be frizzlier as opposed to the soft and fragrant balsam from Canada that customers prefer to use for decorations, he said.
Taft Farms brought in 23,000 pounds of balsam greens last year from its Canadian source to make the festive products sold for an average price of $12 to $15 per wreath. With a 25 percent tariff exacted on its northern neighbor, Tawczynski said that cost will go up, but the increase won’t just be 25 percent. “Everybody is adding 15 percent markup all the way down the supply chain before it gets to you, you’re really adding more like 30 to 35 percent before it gets to the consumer,” he said.
The cost increases Tawczynski’s seen recently on avocados, limes, and peppers from Mexico aren’t related to the tariffs but result from product shortages. “It’s been a very poor growing season, and that’s why you’re having the prices that you’re paying,” he said, adding that the Avian Flu has also upped the cost of eggs.
Tawczynski points to an “upside” to what seems like a downturn in events. “We do live in a great area that’s full of local farms,” he said. “Not just us, there’s so many local options when it comes to local and anything you get local is going to be much healthier anyway.”
Berkshire Food Co-op in Great Barrington could see an increased demand for locally grown foods should prices on imported products rise, said marketing manager Devorah Sawyer. However, like Tawczynski, they acknowledged that costs to farmers to produce their wares could also increase.
Although the tariffs on Mexico are paused for a month, if imposed, Sawyer said those measures “would likely increase avocado [and] garden veggie (cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, squash) prices.”
“Affected products may take a moment to show effects as warehouses will still be working through distributing inventory already in stock pre-tariff,” they said, noting there would likely be a slight delay and trickle-down effect.
New Lebanon Farmers Market & Grocery, open indoors seven days a week year-round, posted a notice about their main fish wholesaler in the grocery store’s February 3 newsletter. The market offers fresh fish on Fridays during the winter months. According to owner and CEO Josh Young, that wholesaler’s suppliers have communicated that they will be increasing the costs for Canadian seafood products in the coming weeks because of tariffs exacted on Canada. “The truth is this is new territory for every seafood company out there and no one knows what the true immediate or long-term effects may be,” the newsletter stated. “We ask that you please bear with us while we navigate the uncertainty of day-to-day pricing on these products.”