Your morning cup of coffee is about to cost even more — thanks to U.S. tariffs | CBC News (2025)

Akshay Kulkarni · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 21, 2025 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: April 21

The price of a cup of coffee in Canada is expected to rise as the world continues to feel the effects of U.S President Donald Trump's tariffs, according to industry experts and cafés.

Trump had threatened extremely steep tariffs on coffee-producing countries like Vietnam, Indonesia and India earlier this month — before saying he would pause those tariff rates and impose a 10 per cent baselinerate for all imported goods.

While those rates would be paid by U.S. importers, many Canadian coffee roasters and brands source their product from U.S. wholesalers and warehouses.

Experts say this means the price of coffee in Canada, which has been on the rise for years, will go up further as Canadian coffee brands have to pay the increased costs, as well as counter-tariffs on U.S. goods that they import.

"It's definitely going to be a shock, I think, for Canadian coffee roasters, Canadian importers, businesses that sell coffee in Canada," said Stuart McCook, a history professor at the University of Guelph.

"It marks a real shift from a historical relationship, where the Canadian and American coffee trade were very tightly integrated and goods tended to flow with a few to no tariffs."

The professor saidit's hard to know exactly how much consumers will end up paying as tariffs take hold.

Robert Carter, the Coffee Association of Canada(CAC) president, saidthe spectre of tariffs adds to the fact thatraw green coffee bean prices are already at thehighest levels in years.

Statistics Canada data shows that the price of coffee in B.C. went up 15 per cent from 2024 to 2025 alone, a jump of a dollar for a bag of coffee.

"The expectation is that we will continue to see elevated prices for some time," Carter said."There are some other elements such as climate change that are really affecting crop harvests and whatnot.

"It's going to be a difficult period for coffee ... for the foreseeable future overall and then the tariffs, obviously, just adding a little bit of fuel to that fire."

The CAC estimates that 74 percent of Canadians drink a cup of joe daily. And the country imported more than25 million kilograms of coffee in June 2024 alone, Statistics Canada said.

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In addition to the tariffs on coffee-producing countries, Trump has imposed 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods that aren't compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) — and coffee isn't included in that free trade policy.

That means any Canadian companies that buy raw coffee beans, and then roastorprocess themand want to sell products to the U.S., would face steep markups.

Carter said that amounts to more than$1billion worth of roasted coffee, and other products, that could be significantly impacted by the 25 per cent U.S. tariffs.

Matt Johnson, who owns Vancouver's Prototype Coffee, roasts his own coffee and ships it across Canada and the U.S.

While he saidhis business won't be significantlyaffected by the 25 per cent tariffs, thecafé owner said larger brands are likely to be — and they'll also be unable to source large amounts of coffee for Canadians at scale without going through the U.S.

"That's all the more reason to steer people in to the direction of coffee businesses that are interested in those direct connections with the farmers, and are not going through the U.S. markets," he said. "I think that those prices are going to be more stable."

Laura Perry, who operates the Luna Coffee roasteryjust outside Vancouver, acknowledged that some smaller roasters are also going to be impacted, as the Canadian specialty coffee importing sector is still quite small.

"I don't expect that we'll start seeing those tariffs, if applicable to us, tacked on to our arrivals until like late June," she said of her own business.

Perry said coffee has been significantly undervalued for decades in Canada — and the tariffs were as good a reason as any to buy coffee that is sourced ethically.

"What these tariffs, on top of everything else, has revealed to the world, I think, is how interconnected we are with one another, how much we rely on one another and also how things should be valued," she said.

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