By Oliver Griffin
SAO PAULO, Jan 23 (Reuters) – Brazil’s instant coffee industry is seeking details on why it continues to face a 50% U.S. tariff, even after import charges were lifted on most of the South American country’s other coffee exports, business associations told Reuters.
U.S. President Donald Trump in 2025 imposed tariffs on a swath of Brazilian goods during a spat with Brazil’s government over the treatment of Brazil’s far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally.
Near the end of last year, however, the Trump administration removed its tariffs on a range of Brazilian coffee exports, though not for instant coffee.
“Whole bean coffee, roasted coffee, flavored instant coffee, cappuccino-style blends, coffee with milk – all of that was exempted,” said Aguinaldo Jose de Lima, director of institutional relations for the Brazilian instant coffee industry group ABICS.
Brazilian coffee exports hit a record high of $15.6 billion in 2025, even amid tariff woes that caused the total export volume to decline by close to 21% to 40 million 60-kilogram bags, exporters group Cecafe reported this week.
However, while total green coffee exports in December – around a month after the U.S. import tariffs were lifted – declined 18% versus the same month in 2024, instant coffee exports fell 35% to 273,466 bags.
“We don’t understand what happened that led to flavored instant coffee being exempt from tariffs while regular instant coffee wasn’t,” Lima said, adding that perhaps there was some confusion over export codes for certain goods. “We are looking into it.”
The U.S. historically has been the biggest buyer of Brazilian instant coffee.
The Brazilian Coffee Industry Association (ABIC) is working with U.S. groups like the National Coffee Association (NCA) to try to show that the tariff is a net negative for Brazilians and Americans, Celirio Inacio, ABIC’s executive director, said in an interview.
“There’s nothing that could justify this attitude of maintaining tariffs on instant coffee,” Inacio said.
However, Inacio said he does not expect a quick fix to the tariff situation without updates concerning coffee crop developments to influence prices.
“I think we’re in a waiting period to see if we’ll continue with this 50% tariff from the United States, if production will have good prospects, and if the weather will cooperate,” he said.
(Reporting by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Paul Simao)
