Meat, Coffee & More Essentials That Could Skyrocket in Price in 2025
Once 2024 comes to a close, consumers may be greeted with an unfortunate reality at the grocery store: skyrocketing prices.
As President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20, his plan to impose tariffs on products coming into the United States from Canada, Mexico, and China, could lead to sticker shock for American consumers, especially at the grocery store.
Trump has pledged to impose a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico, as well as a 10% tariff on imports from China. In posts on his social media platform, Truth Social, he's said that the tariffs are meant to curb the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs into the United States, and they'll remain in place until the "invasion" ends.
While Trump's spokesperson has disputed claims that the tariffs will cause more inflation after years of rising prices, some experts and organizations disagree. In an analysis published this fall, the left-leaning think tank Third Way projected that the tariffs could cause a typical family's yearly grocery bills to rise by $185 (a 3.3% increase).
"Prices are absolutely going to rise, because the added costs from increased tariffs will be paid by the consumer," Gabe Horwitz, senior vice president for Third Way's economic program, told CBS MoneyWatch. "And those price increases are going to be a lot harder for folks lower down on the income scale."
Similarly, Michael Snipes—an economics professor at the University of South Florida, told Grocery Dive that the tariffs will "increase prices for everything that's imported, and that includes food."
So what are some of the items that could get more expensive next year? Customers can find clues by considering what the United States currently imports from Mexico, Canada, and China.
Per the USDA and Trading Economics, which provides economic data and forecasts for nearly 200 countries, fish, vegetables, fruit, cereal, coffee, tea, sugar, cocoa, dairy products, eggs, and vinegar are among the major imports that the United States receives from China. Meanwhile, some of the potentially impacted items from Mexico are cereal, paper products, vegetables, tropical fruits, fruit juice, beer, hard liquor, meat, fish, and seafood.
As for Canada, wood, charcoal, aluminum, alcoholic beverages, books, and cotton are among the main grocery items imported to the United States.
Of course, consumers will have to wait until 2025 to see the true impact of these tariffs, which may be far-reaching.
"Tariffs would hit Americans everywhere, from grocery bills, to back-to-school shopping, to home furnishing, and electronics. And these economic effects may only be amplified by the likely retaliation of other countries on America's exporting businesses," Third Way wrote in its analysis.
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