CNN
—
In Flushing, Queens, fresh produce, soy sauces and seaweed-flavored snacks line the aisles at Chang Jiang Supermarket. Chang Jiang sits amid a row of stores in this majority-Asian community, where colorful storefronts feature signs in Chinese and fresh fruit is sold in boxes on the sidewalk.
Local grocers are often the lifelines of the communities they serve. Indian grocers offer cake rusk biscuits to accompany chai tea, and Chinese grocers reliably keep red jars of Lao Gan Ma chili oil and dried plums in stock.
But Chang Jiang Supermarket — like other Asian American grocery stores — is caught in President Donald Trump’s trade war. Most imported goods face a 10% tariff even after the Trump administration suspended reciprocal tariffs against a laundry list of countries. But his biggest target, by far, is China. Last month, it began with Trump raising US tariffs on Chinese goods by 20% before tit-for-tat escalation rose levies to a whopping 145%. With no negotiations in sight for the two nations, that’s putting community ties under growing strain — especially for Chinese grocers like Chang Jiang.
“With the way things are now, if the tariff doesn’t come down, after two months, there won’t be any more inventory (from China) in the market,” said Wu, the Queens supermarket’s manager, who spoke to CNN on the condition that only his last name is used.
Across the US, shoppers can expect to see prices rise on seafood, coffee, fruit, cheese, nuts, candy bars and other imported foods due to Trump’s across-the-board 10% tariffs. The anticipated price hikes will hit low-income shoppers the hardest, because they spend a greater share of their incomes on essentials like groceries. And for those who depend on produce and other items from China, the astronomical tariffs on Chinese goods will have an even greater impact.
“Companies in China still depend on us consumers. However much they increase, it all impacts us consumers,” he said.
During a phone interview in Mandarin, Wu said the suppliers he buys from are raising prices on all products. While manufacturers have not increased prices for the goods they currently have on hand, new inventory could see significant hikes of 30%, 40% or even 50%.
It’s often not even the cost of items that’s an issue right now, Wu said. Some manufacturers have stopped shipping goods to the US entirely due to the tariffs, he said, leading to limits on sales and possible shortages in the short term.
“The price hasn’t increased very much (for what suppliers currently have on hand),” he said. But instead of selling him the 50 or 100 items he needs, “they’ll say, ‘I’ll just give you five or 10 items, and that’s it.’”
The supermarket hasn’t raised prices for its customers just yet. But in two months, when his inventory from China will run out, Wu says he’ll be forced to turn to suppliers in other countries — perhaps Taiwan or somewhere in Southeast Asia — to make up for the loss.
“We hope that (the trade war between the US and China) is solved as soon as possible,” he said. “If it keeps on getting delayed for two months, the consequences will be unimaginable.”
But it’s not just this New York community — a similar pain is felt across the coast at Wing Hop Fung in Arcadia, California. The family business imports teas, Chinese herbs and other Asian products in this majority-Asian community near Los Angeles.
“Our biggest trading partner is China, so when we hear that these tariffs are going up, we definitely feel it’s a threat to small minority family businesses like ours,” Lan Ong, whose parents started Wing Hop Fung in 1985 and who now runs the business, told CNN affiliate KCAL/KCBS earlier this month.
She said containers were arriving from China with six-figures worth of products, and she isn’t sure how the business will absorb tariffs that will more than double the costs.
Ong has been trying to work with her suppliers and vendors, she added, but “as soon as that import, that container, arrives to our warehouse, that tariff has to be paid right away.”
A staple for immigrant communities — and beyond
The demand for specialty and ethnic grocery ingredients has only been rising over the past decade, Phil Lempert, editor of trade publication Supermarket Guru, told CNN.
The market for these specialty ingredients is expected to reach $153.2 billion worldwide in 2032, up from 2023’s $81.6 billion market, according to estimates from Fortune Business Insights. That’s largely because of broadening American tastes for Asian, Hispanic and Middle Eastern dishes, among others.
“The internet has exposed us to foods from all over the world,” Lempert said. “You have a whole bunch of people going to the stores to be able to find foods they can’t find in their traditional supermarket.”
That interest had led to a transformation of the supermarket industry in the United States. H Mart, a Korean grocery store with a dedicated online fanbase, has grown to nearly 100 locations across the nation since its founding in Woodside, Queens, in 1982. Patel Bros, founded in Chicago in the 1970s, says it is now the largest Indian grocery chain in the United States. Asian supermarket chain 99 Ranch also has locations in multiple states from California to New Jersey.
The H Marts of the world have the resources to prepare and fortify their supply chain, Lempert said. But for small, locally owned grocery stores, there isn’t much they can do.
In Honolulu, the uncertainty of Trump’s tariffs has rattled small businesses in Chinatown. Chu Lan Shubert-Kwock, who founded the local Chinatown Business & Community Association, said that the trade war “will set us back.”
“(Businesses are) not going to stock up until they sell their stuff,” she told CNN affiliate KHNL/KGMB last week. “You are not going to buy until you’re sure how much your goods are going to be, and how much you can sell them for.”
She added: “Nobody wins in this trade war.”
In time, shoppers at these stores might see less product in the store. They’ll also see higher prices, Lempert said.
At Chang Jiang, Wu had a warning for customers who are worried about their favorite products going away or getting more expensive.
“I’m calling for everyone to stock up during this short period of time when goods are still at their current prices,” he said, “because prices will definitely skyrocket later.”
