Philly port braces for tariffs as the largest U.S. importer of fruit

Philadelphia’s seaport imports more fresh fruit than any other port in the United States.

That cargo is about to get more expensive.

President Donald Trump’s “liberation day” announcement Wednesday of new tariffs on hundreds of global trading partners includes 10% taxes on goods from Costa Rica, Panama, Chile, Guatemala, and Brazil — all big suppliers of fresh fruit that moves through Philadelphia.

Australia and New Zealand, which export meat, dairy, and fruit to Philly, were also slapped with 10% import taxes. The cost of the tariffs, set to take effect later this week, will be paid for by American importers and may be passed onto consumers, economists say.

» READ MORE: Philadelphia imports more fresh fruit than any other U.S. port, according to S&P Global data. But with increased competition, can the city retain its market edge?

So as businesses, consumers, and world leaders absorbed Trump’s latest efforts to remake global trade — with a plan that includes a 10% baseline tariff on most imports and levies as high as 54% on goods from countries like China — the head of the company that operates Philadelphia’s biggest marine terminal held out hope Thursday that the president would ultimately spare fresh produce from high import taxes.

“Literally hundreds of millions of people are affected by the landed cost and value of the products like bananas, grapes, apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, meat protein, dairy protein that comes through our gateway,” said Leo Holt, president of Gloucester City-based Holt Logistics Corp., in an interview.

“The place where any society feels things the most keen is not necessarily in the pocketbook, but on the dinner table and the breakfast table,” Holt said.

Holt employs about 500 union longshoremen at the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal in South Philadelphia and also runs ports in Gloucester City and Paulsboro. The Port of Philadelphia as a whole supports about 12,000 jobs, according to the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority, a state agency that owns the seaport facilities and leases them to private operators.

Trump, in a speech at the Rose Garden at the White House on Wednesday, said so-called reciprocal tariffs would stimulate a domestic manufacturing base that has eroded over decades.

“For years, hardworking American citizens were forced to sit on the sidelines as other nations got rich and powerful, much of it at our expense,” he said. “But now it’s our turn to prosper.”

But while some argue that tariffs can be used in a targeted manner to protect certain important industries or punish a bad actor, Trump’s broad-based tariffs will also apply to foreign goods for which there is little to no alternative in the United States — like coffee and certain produce.

The Yale Budget Lab, a nonpartisan policy research center, estimates that the price of fresh produce would rise 4% as a result of Trump’s tariffs.

“The imposition of tariffs increases costs, disrupts supply chains, and ultimately drives up grocery prices,” Cathy Burns, CEO of the International Fresh Produce Association, said in a statement Wednesday.

“Fresh produce trade is uniquely complex, shaped by seasonal and regional factors that make a well-functioning market essential for year-round availability,” she said. “Fair and open trade strengthens American agriculture, expands market opportunities, and ensures consumers nationwide continue to have access to affordable, fresh produce.”

But Burns praised the Trump administration’s decision to exempt goods that comply with a North American free trade agreement from tariffs — meaning that fresh produce from Mexico and Canada won’t face import taxes, according to the trade group.

As much as American consumers are concerned about inflation, the trade war will have more far-reaching effects on people in countries like Costa Rica who work in the fruit trade.

“For the folks in these production areas … it’s devastating, because those cost chains spin out of control quickly,” Holt said. “And when those folks don’t have work, then it’s, you know, it’s the difference between eating and not eating.”

Philadelphia’s port will largely avoid the steep tariffs Trump has proposed on imports from Asian countries like China and Vietnam, whose goods will face a 46% tax. “We do not have direct services from Asia into the Port of Philadelphia,” Holt said, adding that East Coast competitor ports in New York, Baltimore, Norfolk, and Charleston would feel “the large impact” from those tariffs.

Holt said foreign governments now have the opportunity to try to negotiate deals with Trump. “We believe that those folks that treat the United States fairly are probably going to be treated fairly, and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t,” he said.

Staff writers John Duchneskie and Lizzie Mulvey contributed to this article.