DES MOINES, Iowa — Coffee companies across the U.S. and here in Iowa are feeling the effects of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, months after they were implemented. 

Coffee prices have gone up nearly 21%  since this time last year. The average price of ground roast coffee is nearly $9. 

While the U.S. is the biggest coffee import country in the world, Brazil is the largest export country for the caffeinated goods. Brazilian coffee is seeing a 50% tariff, while the second largest export, Colombia, is seeing a 10% tariff. Other significant coffee exports, like Nicaragua and Vietnam, are also facing tariffs. 

Smokey Row Coffee has 14 locations across central Iowa, and they say they are being impacted. 

“One of our primary importers said they weren’t even going to bring any more coffee in from Brazil for the foreseeable future because the tariffs are so high, and it makes it price prohibitive,” Smokey Row General Manager Calvin Roose said.

Smokey Row was able to bulk order some of that Brazilian coffee months ago, before the tariff went into effect, but that supply won’t last forever. 

They haven’t had to raise their prices yet, but as time goes on, it’s harder to avoid handing some of that extra cost off to consumers. 

“So right now we’re actually looking at that. We actually had a meeting last week about it just because it’s to the point where even some of our coffee that we’re putting out the door, the cost is starting to bump right up against what we’re trying to sell it for. So that’s just not sustainable as a business model,” Roose said. 

He also said they want Smokey Row to be a place where people hang out and it’s affordable to come to. They’ve avoided a price increase for as long as they could. 

“Nobody has seen price increases from us yet this year, but those are going to unfortunately be coming just because there’s not any way around it anymore. We don’t want to do that, like I said. But that’s just a thing that we’re going to do to be open tomorrow. We just hope everybody understands that.”

Tariffs aren’t the only thing that’s affecting the price of coffee lately. They’re constantly monitoring droughts and rainfall in some of these coffee producing countries, like Brazil.