Major U.S. food companies, including PepsiCo, Conagra and J.M. Smucker, have petitioned President Donald Trump for specific tariff exemptions on imports of cocoa, coffee and tropical fruits, Reuters reported Wednesday. These ingredients are essential to their products but are not produced domestically.
The Consumer Brands Association, a consumer products trade group representing the companies, requested the exemption on Monday. The group emphasized that exempting these items would protect manufacturers reliant on U.S. farmers for other supplies and help reduce consumer inflation.
The U.S. food industry is concerned that new tariffs on goods from China, Canada and Mexico could escalate production costs, leading to higher prices for consumers already affected by recent inflation.
Read more about tariffs coverage from Endeavor Business Media
- Industry Week: Trump’s Tariff Plan: A Strategic Move to Reshore Manufacturing
- Food Processing: Canadian Brewer Offers a 1,461-Pack of Beers – ‘Enough To Get Through a Presidential Term’
- EHS Today: EHS and ESG: Navigating the Changing Landscape in 2025
- Pharma Manufacturing, covering ingredients: Canadian biopharma Theratechnologies is caught in the crossfire of a US-Canada trade war
- Food Processing: Lindt May Shift Canada Chocolate Supply From U.S. Plants to Europe Because of Tariffs

Linda Becker | Editor-in-Chief
Linda Becker is editor-in-chief of Automatic Merchandiser and VendingMarketWatch.com. She has more than 20 years of experience in B2B publishing, writing, editing and producing content for magazines, websites, webinars, podcasts, newsletters and eBooks, primarily for manufacturing and process engineering audiences. Since joining Automatic Merchandiser and VendingMarketWatch.com, Linda has developed a new appreciation for the convenience services industry and the essential role it plays. She is dedicated to serving readers by covering the latest news in the vending, office coffee service and micro market industry. She can be reached at 262-203-9924 or [email protected].