3 Foods To Stock Up On Ahead Of Encroaching Trade Tariffs

It may not be obvious at first sight, but the wide range of products available at modern grocery stores depends heavily on international trade. Even when it comes to foods easily produced in the United States, companies will sometimes source them internationally to save money. But President Donald Trump's looming tariffs against Canadian and Mexican imports threaten to make food from two of the United States' major suppliers more expensive.

On February 3, Trump paused the implementation of his 25% tariffs against Mexican and Canadian imports for 30 days, while both governments appeased the president's unrelated demands about drugs and immigration. However, planned tariffs against Chinese imports were put into effect, highlighting that the potential tariff regimes against Mexico and Canada are still in play.

With grocery prices already sky high, Trump's tariffs threaten to make certain standards even pricier. But it's not just fresh items like fruit and vegetables that are poised to get more expensive. Foods with longer shelf lives are also at risk from the tariffs, foods that it can be tempting to stock up on ahead of time. And while stockpiling items to beat the tariffs can be a sound personal strategy, do not overbuy at the expense of other shoppers, either. Panicked hoarding of common grocery items only spreads the economic pain.

French fries are an enormously popular part of the American diet, and there's a good chance they're about to get more expensive. Although the U.S. state of Idaho is famous for its potatoes, Canada still exports $1.7 billion worth of frozen french fries and other frozen potato products to the U.S. every year, touching major brands across your grocery store's frozen food aisles.

It's not just home kitchens that might want to stock up, either. Franchisers of fast food megachains might want to brace for the impact of tariffs too. McDonald's and Burger King partially source their frozen potato products, including fries, from McCain Foods, a Canadian corporation that's also the world's largest manufacturer of frozen french fries. And Wendy's gets its best-selling fries from Cavendish Farms, another giant Canadian vegetable processor.

It's true that the United States produces a lot of beef and pork itself, but that's not the whole story of our national consumption. American farms import more than one million cows from Mexico every year, animals that are destined to become part of the U.S. beef supply. Tariff restrictions on these imports could constrict the domestic beef supply, at a time when beef prices are already blisteringly high.

It's not just beef, though. Another favorite American protein, pork, is also intertwined with international trade. Every year, approximately three million Canadian piglets are raised on U.S. farms, where pig feed is easier and less expensive to get. The matured pigs are then sent for slaughtering, and the pork sells on both sides of the border. Trump's tariffs could throw an unpredictable wrench into these cross-border business operations, the costs of which would likely trickle down to consumers.

Just remember that if you're stocking up on meats like beef and pork ahead of potential tariff price hikes, properly freeze your meat for the longest shelf life possible. Don't just stick it in the refrigerator, where it will spoil after only a few days.

Although the United States is a major global exporter of tree nuts, we also import significant amounts for domestic consumption. Most of the tree nuts the United States imports come from Mexico. In 2022, the U.S. imported $989 million worth of tree nuts, $478 million of which came from Mexico.

Pecans are an especially big tree nut crop in Mexico, a country which, along with the United States, accounts for about 93% of global pecan production. And for Mexican farmers, the geographically close U.S. market is historically a favorite target for exports. But raising a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico would mean raising the price on traditional southern treats like pralines and pecan pie.