The Canned Fish To Stock Up On Before Prices Surge

Canned fish is one of the best budget pantry items, but it may not stay such a bargain for long. Just a few years after American consumers endured difficult inflation in food prices during the Covid pandemic, tariffs are now threatening to take another bite out of people's wallets. While the actual level of the tariffs that the President is looking to impose has changed seemingly by the day, no matter what happens, they are going to lead to higher prices at the grocery store on items from countries like Canada and Mexico, which encompasses quite a lot. And some of the countries with the biggest proposed tariffs produce a huge fraction of a popular staple: canned tuna.

Tuna is a massive worldwide industry, but the center of production is in the Western Pacific ocean. The country with the largest amount of tuna production is Indonesia, but the Philippines and Vietnam are some of the other largest sources of tuna. As things stand right now, President Trump has established a 10% across the board tariff along with higher rates on a few countries like China. But the delay in the larger tariffs is only supposed to be a temporary 90 days, and while deals with individual countries may be reached, there hasn't been any clear progress. If the higher tariffs do come back as they were proposed in April, imports from some of these tuna producers could be facing tax rates as high as 40%.

The tuna industry also shows the complexity of the global food supply systems that tariffs will be disrupting. While Indonesia is the top producer, Thailand is actually the top tuna exporter. This is because Thailand, while also being a major tuna source, also has a stronger industrial base and links to global markets, which lowers the cost of production. Other major exporters include China and Vietnam. What do they all have in common? Extra high tariffs may be on the way. Above the baseline rate of 10%, tariffs on China are currently as high as 145%, while Vietnam's proposed rate was 46%, Thailand's was 36%, and Indonesia's was 32%. All of those taxes are going to mean higher prices on your favorite brands of canned tuna.

And while some tuna production is done in American territories like Samoa, shoppers won't just be able to buy American tuna. Beyond the low cost of business abroad, tuna production moved away from the United States because American waters are where tuna catches often accidentally killed the dolphins that live in the same ecosystem, which isn't a problem in the Western Pacific. The reality is that there is little to be done to avoid rising prices due to tariffs, as any production that might move back to the U.S. will see higher labor costs anyway. So grab those family packs of canned tuna now, because inflation is likely coming back with a vengeance.