Tariffs Rattle Farmers, Spike Costs
When Dave Hedlin’s British Columbia supplier warned that the price of greenhouse soil mix would rise by 25% on April 2, Hedlin, of Hedlin Farms in La Conner, responded by buying enough soil to last through the transplant season.
The cardboard boxes made from Canadian wood fiber that John Thulen of Pioneer Potatoes in Mount Vernon uses to ship potatoes also now cost 25% more.
“Announcing tariffs opens the door” to price increases, Thulen said. “The Denny’s breakfast deal will never go back to $3.99. I’m still paying fuel surcharges imposed seven years ago that have never gone away.”
Tariffs, threatened and real, have La Conner-area farmers consternated. How high can they get? How long can they last? How much will they add to their “inputs”— everything that goes into planting, tending, harvesting, packaging and selling a crop?
A BLANKET TARIFF
WOULD BE A PROBLEM
FOR A CROP THAT IS GROWN HERE.
~John Thulen, Pioneer Potatoes
Fertilizer costs are up 10% because most potash — the generic term for potassium-containing fertilizer — comes from Canada. “The downside will be minimal, because a lot of that has been purchased for this year,” said Jason Vander Kooy of Harmony Dairy. “But if tariffs carry on for another year, it could have an impact.”
John Thulen’s equipment and parts come from the European Union. “If something from the Netherlands or Italy is brought through a port in Canada, there could be multiple tariffs,” he said.
The impact of tariffs on crop sales is unclear.
The Washington Bulb Company doesn’t sell daffodils and tulips into Canada, but “there is always stuff crossing the border,” said Ray DeVries of Ralph’s Greenhouse. If U.S. tariffs diminish demand for produce from hothouses in British Columbia, opportunities for his organic vegetables could increase.
The 10% tariff on Mexican agricultural products could make John Thulen’s potatoes more attractive to the Texas market, which usually buys lower-priced potatoes and juice beets from Mexico.
Wholesale fresh vegetables from Hedlin Farms “compete with California and Arizona, not Mexico,” Hedlin said. “If times get tough, consumers might not want to pay more for the organic and regenerative product we produce.”
And the spinach, cabbage, and beet seed that La Conner-area farmers like the Hedlins, Deyos, and Hulberts grow for the world? “A blanket tariff would be a problem for a crop that is grown here, sent to a European company, and then sold back into the U.S.,” Hedlin said. “There’s a lot of vulnerability.”
Cuts to USDA, not USAID, have local impacts
U. S. Department of Agriculture cuts and pending Washington state budget cuts are affecting customers of the Puget Sound Food Hub on Best Road, which aggregates and sells produce from 70 small farms.
In response, the Food Hub has reduced its 2025 revenue projections by $1.4 million.
Cuts in USDA funds to school districts and hunger relief organizations means the Food Hub no longer packs produce boxes for the Bellingham Food Bank and other northwest Washington food banks.
Funding for the USDA’s Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement also has been reduced, so K-12 school districts that buy high-quality produce through the program will cut back.
Due to the state’s budget shortfall, some statewide contracts “have also shifted on us since the beginning of the calendar year,” said General Manager Andrew Yokom.
Skagit County farmers grow wheat as a rotation crop, but do not sell grain to the U.S. Aid for International Development program.
Having much of the country’s grain in limbo means “a couple billion dollars of extra grain going back into the domestic market, when grain prices weren’t good in the first place,” Hedlin said.
Recently Hedlin found a Canadian buyer for 150 tons of wheat that needed a market.
“I was just about to make a deal when they called to tell me about the proposed 25% tariff,” Hedlin said. “I said, ‘well I’ll just pay the 25%, I want to get rid of it.’ The broker told me the government didn’t want them buying anything from the U.S. right now.”
The bottom line: no sale.
Tired of rumors and chaos
Tariff reversals and rampant rumors about ICE raids are a problem, too.
“This thing changes by the minute,” De Vries said. “We’re doing this today, tomorrow something else. Thirty ICE buses are on the way to berry fields, and so on.
“They promised to lower grocery store prices, and they’re going to do that by taking away all the farmworkers?” De Vries pondered.
Pioneer Potatoes workers with green cards, including some from Ukraine, worry that their cards aren’t good anymore.
“I don’t like that they’re nervous,” Thulen said, “and if people don’t show up to pick berries here or apples in Wenatchee, then prices will go up but the yield will be lower.”
“Everybody is just guessing and speculating,” DeVries said. “Until there is something solid and definite, we aren’t going to lose any sleep over this political rotzooi. That’s Dutch for a real big mess.”
Anne Basye is a freelance writer based in greater La Conner.
