News

Steel tariffs impacting food processors

A food processor says the Trump administration’s tariff on steel is raising costs for them and consumers.  Paul Palmby is Chief Operating Officer for Seneca Foods.  He says, “Anybody that’s putting food in a can is affected by these tariffs.”

Palmby says Seneca Foods has eight canning plants in Wisconsin and manufactures their own cans at their Baraboo, Wisconsin plant.  He tells Brownfield they support the domestic steel industry wholeheartedly and they buy a lot of it, but he would like to see the Trump administration exempt the tin-plated steel used in food cans from tariffs.  “Tinplated steel is a specialty product within the steel category (and) that there’s not enough domestic production to satisfy demand.  I think they need to recognize the fact that (it’s) necessary to have imported steel on tinplate.”

Palmby says the tariffs have raised their can costs about 25%, which gets passed on to consumers.  “As we have inflation on the cost side, and we have to raise pricing, you know it just accelerates the decline in consumption of these nutritious products that we’re producing.”