Your ‘Made in the USA’ Coffee Will Always Be More Expensive Than Tariffed Imports; Experts Share Why
Written by
Travis Woods
Edited by
Chris Cluff
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For American consumers, much of 2025 has been spent watching retail prices steadily increase due to the Trump administration’s implementation of tariffs upon nearly all goods imported into America by our trade partners.
From clothes to cars, from gadgets to groceries, most imported items are getting more expensive across the board when compared to their made-in-America counterparts.
Coffee Prices Are Increasing Due To Tariffs
Imported coffee — which accounts for just over 99% of the coffee consumed in America — has also seen a price increase. The numbers vary somewhat: CNBC reported that coffee prices jumped 14.5% from July 2024 to July 2025, while Daily Coffee News reported that supermarket and roasted coffee spiked 21.7% from August 2024 to August 2025. All indicate a significant rise in coffee prices due to tariffs. This comes as little surprise, as Brazil is the world’s primary coffee producer — responsible for nearly 40% of global supply — and Vietnam, the second-largest producer, would also be subject to U.S. tariffs.
What is surprising, however, is that international coffee prices — despite being continually on the rise — are still consistently lower than coffee made in the USA. Moreover, it will be all but impossible for America to ever produce enough coffee to be an affordable equivalent to imported coffee — no matter how many tariffs are involved.
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Made in the USA Coffee Will Never Be Cheaper Than Imported Coffee — Even With Tariffs
The reason why is simple: America doesn’t have the ability to supply enough coffee to meet the daily demands of its citizenry.
“The core challenge is that coffee can only be grown in specific geography and climate, which exists within the United States in only a small amount of land mass — primarily within Hawaii,” said Mike Perry, founder of Klatch Coffee. “Within that land mass, the very best coffees come from specific altitudes and soil conditions, further narrowing the scope of where it’s possible to grow great coffee. As a result, domestic production accounts for less than 1% of all the coffee consumed in the USA.”
Putting it even more bluntly, Perry made clear that no amount of tariffs will price out international coffee. “No matter how high tariffs on imports were theoretically raised,” he said. “It is impossible to meet the demand for coffee consumed in the USA using domestic crops — there simply isn’t enough to go around, even if there was retail price parity between imports and domestic beans.”
Chris Motola, financial analyst at National Business Capital, concurred. “Domestic coffee production makes up a tiny fraction of the coffee Americans consume, so it’s not really a viable alternative at the level of scale, much less price,” he said. “Hawaii and Puerto Rico produce the majority of domestic coffee, and, barring some kind of agricultural breakthrough, there isn’t enough land for the islands to meet America’s enormous coffee demand.”
Despite one goal of Trump’s tariffs being to drive up commerce for American businesses, it seems the coffee industry is one that will firmly remain primarily international, no matter how high tariff-driven prices rise.
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