James Annabell: Egmont Honey founder on the impact Donald Trump's tariffs are having on Kiwi businesses

Exporters are scrambling under the sudden imposition of Donald Trump's tariffs. 

The President's signature economic policy has taken effect, with US allies and adversaries all facing tariffs. 

New Zealand's been hit with the lowest rate -10 percent.

Egmont Honey founder James Annabell says the move prompted hasty discussions with US-based buyers.

He explained Costco US knew his company couldn't afford to take on the extra cost - so now it's likely US consumers will bear the brunt of it. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crayon Bridge shade tariffs are in place now, they've been
in place for just over an hour. It's ten percent
for Kiwi goods heading to the United States. James Annabel
is the founder of Egmont. Honey, he's with me tonight.
Got stuff hitting that way, James, Good evening.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good evening, Ryan, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Good to have you on. So just how well, what
have you got in the ocean at the moment heading
to the States, And what's the deal with the tariffs.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Yeah, we've got five or six containers on the water,
which I believe are exempt actually, which is great. But
I know for a fact that we've sort of we've
got about ten containers due to leave sort of end
of April May, which will all be subject to ten
percent tariffs. So we're obviously scrambling when we got the
news last week.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
The ones that are exempt, you mean, because they are
already on the water, they won't face the charge. That's
happened too soon.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, that's right. So I believe anything that left kind
of after Saturday, well before Saturday last week, we're exempt.
I could be wrong there, as an expert'll probably bring
it in some wrong, but we understand that what's on
the water now is okay, but the containers to come
are all going to be yeah, subject that ten percent.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
And for the honey that's going in April, have you
figured out whether you'll be able to pass that on
to your consumers?

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yeah, Look, we're in it. We're in a situation where
we've got a bit of a pipeline fill because we've
just won a big, big chunk of business with Costco USA,
so we Yeah, we obviously jumped on emails pretty quick
to try and get a meeting with the buyer, and
luckily he was pretty responsive and he's actually allowed us
to pass that ten percent onto them, So we've escaped
it pretty well. And of course, when you're when you're

(01:28):
tendering for that kind of work, you know he put
your best foot forward anyway, So we couldn't afford really
to to suck up ten percent and he knew that.
So I guess it's the US consumer that will well
will take the brunt.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Of they'll have to wear it in our case, yeah,
will they buy less?

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Look, I guess that's always the conundrum we're in, you know,
economic uncertain times. Are people going to pay an extra
ten percent for manucure. I mean, it's already a premium product.
But if I guess, if you know, if your household shop,
your price of everything's going up, you're certainly going to
be considering you need a pot of Manuka honey. But
you know, places like Costco they're pretty competitive anyway, so

(02:06):
we're not too concerned at the moment.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
James, good to have you on the show. And who
doesn't want Look, even if it's ten percent extra, you
justtill want your Eggmont honey, don't you? James Annabel, founder
of Igmont Honey. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news talks.

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