How The Trade War Crushed A Growing Chinese Market For U.S. Cranberries
The U.S. has spent millions to get China to embrace the unknown fruit — and it did. Now, tariffs have driven China to buy its cranberries from other countries, leaving U.S. farmers in the lurch. In 2008, a Massachusetts grower could expect to fetch around $58.60 per barrel of fruit, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). By 2018, the price fell to $22.30 — a 62% drop. To make matters worse, the ongoing trade war between Washington, D.C., and Beijing has put a tight squeeze on international cranberry sales.
There is a palpable sense that if you can sell into China, it can change your business fortunes in a big way. That's why the U.S. cranberry industry has spent millions of dollars marketing in China over the past several years: to get people to try, and maybe even love, the little red fruit. "At least not get [cranberries] confused with blueberries," said Lydia Lee, president of the public relations firm Weber Shandwick's China division.
On July 6, 2018, the White House approved tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. Chinese trade authorities immediately retaliated with tariffs on dozens of U.S. goods, including dried cranberries, for which China's Ministry of Commerce raised an existing tariff from 15% to 40%. U.S. export data show cranberry sales to China during the first-half of 2019 were 45% lower than sales during first-half of 2018, before the Chinese tariffs on U.S. cranberries went into effect. That was after several years of continuous growth.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/10/06/763463639/how-the-trade-war-crushed-a-growing-chinese-market-for-u-s-cranberries
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