How Trump’s Metals Tariffs Could Make Food and Beer Cans More Expensive

For years, the biggest expense for Pacific Coast Producers was the peaches, pears and tomatoes that the farmers in the co-op grew to be processed for sale in grocery stores as well as restaurants, hospitals and school cafeterias.

But since 2018, the biggest expense for the co-op isn’t the fruit: It’s the cans.

New tariffs are reigniting tensions over an object that is critical to the food and beverage industry but that most consumers give little thought. Cans are likely to be more expensive after President Trump’s move to double tariffs on imported steel, the main material used in cans for food, and on aluminum, commonly used for beverages.

Roughly 80 percent of the specialized tin-plated steel — steel with a thin layer of tin — used for cans for food comes from abroad. And while roughly 70 percent of the aluminum used in cans for beer, energy drinks and sodas comes from recycled material, the other 30 percent that is virgin, or new, aluminum is largely imported.

Pacific Coast Producers won’t feel that bite — yet. Like other manufacturers, it locked in critical elements of its supply chain well in advance. But if those tariffs remain in place, the co-op’s next order of tin-coated cans could cost it an additional $40 million.

“We can’t absorb those costs,” said Matt Strong, the chief executive. The co-op, based in Lodi, Calif., sells its fruit under a variety of private-label brands and has annual revenue of $1.1 billion. Mr. Strong estimates he is likely to raise prices for retailers, like grocery stores, as much as 10 cents a can to cover the increased expense. Retailers, he said, could pass the cost on to consumers.

Steel manufacturers and the Trump administration argue that higher tariffs are necessary to protect the industries from “unfair foreign competition” and to spur investment in new and existing mills. But can manufacturers and food and beverage companies say the new tariffs will raise prices and make it more difficult for them to compete against foreign suppliers.