Tilapia’s reign as America’s favourite fish may be over as Trump taxes Chinese seafood

Tilapia’s rise to ubiquity across US restaurants and seafood aisles over the past decade has been rapid. Now that the Trump administration has targeted Chinese seafood with a 10 per cent tariff, its golden age may be coming to an end.

The fish, popular for its mild taste and low cost, is among the estimated US$200 billion of items that could rise in price for US consumers as President Donald Trump aims to erase the nation’s long-standing trade deficit. Now, importers and distributors are on high alert to see whether tilapia emerges unscathed from a late-August public comment period on the proposed tariffs.

If not, the product could become an example of how even minor cost increases can reverberate across supply chains and economies as the hospitals, nursing homes and schools that buy frozen Chinese tilapia are forced to look elsewhere for cheap protein – or pay more.

“We can’t absorb the cost of tariffs if we have to pay more for tilapia,” said Dan Fusco, President of Global Food Trading, an importer and distributor of frozen fish to wholesale distributors. “We will raise the prices.”

Kevin Fitzsimmons, a professor and researcher at the University of Arizona as well as a director of Americas Tilapia Alliance, says that US consumers will suffer more than Chinese producers, since they have made inroads in other markets such as Europe, Russia and the Middle East.

He adds that consumers may not have any other good options for cheap fish: The cost of basa – a Vietnamese catfish and the closest substitute to tilapia – rose recently in the US due to separate anti-dumping duties.

The US imported nearly 134 million kilograms (about 148,000 tonnes) of frozen or fresh tilapia from China last year, data from the National Marine Fisheries Service show. While that’s down from 173 million kilograms in 2014, it still represents the largest Chinese seafood export to the US.

The Fishin’ Co., a tilapia importer, says it’s disappointed in the tariffs and that shoppers will bear the brunt of higher costs. And it’s not just tilapia: Some wild-caught species such as salmon and cod are sent to China for processing, even if they are fished elsewhere. Consumers may also see these products get more expensive.

“Some of the cost may be absorbed into the value chain,” the Munhall, Pennsylvania-based company said in an email, “but any time you introduce cost into that chain, it tends to find its way to the end consumer.”