Orange juice importer sues Trump, says Brazil tariffs will mean higher prices for consumers

CNN

6 days ago

President Donald Trump's tariffs on Brazil could push up the cost of orange juice at major American supermarkets like Aldi, Walmart and Wegmans by as much as 25%, according to one US-based orange juice importer.
Johanna Foods, a US-based importer and seller of orange juice, has sued the Trump administration, alleging that the threatened 50% tariffs on goods imported into the United States from Brazil would cause a nearly $70 million hit to its business and result in steeply higher prices for consumers.
New Jersey-based Johanna Foods on Friday filed a complaint in the Court of International Trade in New York, claiming that President Donald Trump's July 9 letter to Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announcing the tariff wasn't a formal executive order, nor did it invoke any legal basis for which the tariff could be imposed.
Classifying itself as a 'cornerstone of the national orange juice supply chain,' Johanna Foods said in the complaint that it and its Spokane, Washington-based subsidiary Johanna Beverage Company supply nearly 75% of private label not-from-concentrate orange juice customers in the United States.
Brazil is the largest producer of orange juice in the world, accounting for 75% of global exports, and supplies more than half of the OJ consumed in America, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
Johanna Foods supplies retailers such Aldi, Walmart, Sam's Club, Wegmans, Safeway and Albertsons, according to the complaint. Johanna Foods also sells its branded orange juice, Tree Ripe, to stores mostly in the Northeast.
But the entirety of that orange juice come from Brazil, the company said.
Johanna Foods estimated that a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods including OJ would cause the company's annual costs to surge by an additional $68 million, an amount that 'exceeds any single year of profits in the 30-year history' of the business, the company claimed. Importers initially pay all duties and tariffs and then pass those on 'dollar for dollar' to the company, Johanna Foods noted in the complaint.
Such a cost spike would pose an 'immediate and unmanageable financial burden' that would force Johanna Foods to raise prices on its customers that would in turn cause a 20% to 25% price hike for consumers, the company estimated. The added costs also could imperil the company's 685-person workforce in New Jersey and Washington, the company alleged.
The company noted that the tariffs threaten to cause a 'significant, and perhaps prohibitive' price increase for a breakfast staple.
'The not-from-concentrate orange juice ingredients imported from Brazil are not reasonably available from any supplier in the United States in sufficient quantity or quality to meet [Johanna Foods'] production needs,' according to the complaint. 'Presently, oranges grown in Florida are used primarily for producing orange juice concentrate due to poor quality of the product, with very little of the crop dedicated to [not-from-concentrate orange juice].'
Plus, the Florida citrus market has been negatively impacted in recent decades by crop disease, hurricanes and urban development. Florida's orange crop in 2025 could be the lowest in 95 years, according to the USDA's most recent Fruit and Tree Nuts Outlook, published in March.
Florida's not alone in its crop woes. Extreme heat and a historic drought in Brazil have hampered output, causing prices to climb steeply in recent years.
The average price of a 12-ounce can of frozen orange juice concentrate hit a record high of $4.49 in June, up 55% from 2022, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows.
Johanna Foods is the latest small business to sue the administration over its tariffs.
In late-May, the US trade court ruled in favor of the businesses, finding Trump exceeded his presidential authority to impose the country-wide tariffs. However, a federal appeals court allowed those tariffs to take effect while they're under further review in court.
The company asked the court to declare that the Brazil tariff is unconstitutional, in that it's not allowed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, and to prevent the administration from enforcing the broader countrywide tariffs announced on April 2.
The Trump administration has not officially formalized a 50% tariff on Brazil nor provided a mechanism for how it would be levied.
'The administration is legally and fairly using tariff powers that have been granted to the executive branch by the Constitution and Congress to level the playing field for American workers and safeguard our national security,' White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement emailed to CNN.
The letter to Brazil tied the massive, proposed tariff to Trump's discontent with the ongoing criminal trial against the country's former president, Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing ally of Trump's who was charged with plotting a coup d'état to remain in power.
It wasn't the first time Trump used the threat of tariffs to try to influence other countries' domestic policy decisions. He threatened Colombia with higher tariffs if the country didn't accept deportees from the US (Colombia ultimately accepted the deportees and avoided those tariffs.) Trump also imposed tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada and China over claims that they enabled fentanyl trade and facilitated illegal migration to the United States.
Still, Trump's letter to Brazil included a stipulation similar to those made to other heads of state: That there would be 'no tariff' if the country or its companies decided to manufacture in the United States.
However, unlike the more than 20 other countries that received tariff threats that same week, the United States ran a $6.8 billion trade surplus with Brazil last year.
CNN's Elisabeth Buchwald contributed to this report.