United States (US) President Donald Trump has threatened to impose a 50 per cent tariff on Brazilian imports from 1 August, following trade negotiations with the world’s largest producer of coffee that the White House has labelled “far from reciprocal”.
Brazil was initially hit with a blanket 10 per cent tariff rate as part of the ‘Liberation Day’ announcements, but claims from President Trump that Brazil “has not been good to [the US], not good at all” and his calls for criminal proceedings against former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to be thrown out have been attributed as causing the potential tariff hike.
Brazil produces about 40 per cent of the world’s Arabica coffee and is a major agricultural trading partner of the US. According to the US Department of Agriculture, it accounted for 64.7 million 60-kilogram bags of coffee in 2024/25.
Reuters reported roughly a third of coffee consumed in the US comes from Brazil, which ships approximately eight million 60-kilogram bags there per year.
Chairman of Lavazza, Giuseppe Lavazza, has warned the introduction of a 50 per cent tariff on Brazil would drive coffee prices even higher than they already are across the world.
“Having a tariff in the US for the Brazilian import of coffee means the price of the coffee in Brazil has to rise quite a lot – 50 per cent is a really high charge. It could create a lot of inflation in our industry, which is already under stress because of the problems with green coffee beans which we have seen in the past four years,” Lavazza tells Bloomberg.
“Brazil is so relevant in the coffee industry. It accounts for about 40 per cent of the total production. With Vietnam, they together account for about 55 per cent. Not having Brazilian coffee at your disposal would mean distortion in the market, restriction in coffee availability, and high tension on the prices of green coffee around the world.”
“It’s a pretty tough environment and I hope lawmakers have the sensitivity to understand this.”
Those price increases, according to Lavazza, will likely be passed on – in some part – to consumers of coffee, even with the best efforts of large businesses to bear the brunt of the price rises.
President Lula da Silva warned any increases in tariffs on Brazil would be reciprocated.
Trump has also threatened to increase tariffs an additional 10 per cent on nations that attended the recent Brics summit in Rio de Janeiro, labelling it “anti-American”.
Other attendees at the summit included the leaders of notable coffee producers Indonesia, China, Ethiopia and India, as well as delegates from other producers including Colombia, Kenya, Uganda, and Vietnam.
The price of green beans has been slowly falling in recent months according to the International Coffee Organisation.
