NEW YORK (AP) — At Fishtown Seafood, owner Bryan Szeliga is worried about the oysters.
Szeliga, who operates three retail and wholesale locations in Philadelphia and Haddonfield, N.J., sells a range of seafood. But briny, slurpable oysters are the biggest part of his overall business. And 60% to 70% come from Canada.
The Trump’s administration’s on-again, off-again 25% tariffs on imports from Canada — which went into effect on Tuesday only to be suspended on some items for a month on Thursday — are giving Szeliga whiplash. The flip-flopping making it tough to plan ahead. And if the tariffs do eventually go into effect, he’ll likely need to raise prices and offer his customers fewer choices of oysters.
“Part of the problem of the ‘chaos and shock and awe’ approach to the negotiation is you can’t actually really business plan based on knowing what is and isn’t actually going to happen,” he said. “That’s a big problem.”
Szeliga started Fishtown Seafood four years ago after other jobs in the food industry including chef and working for a nonprofit. His customers include neighborhood locals and other who shop at his retail shops as well as restaurant wholesale clients.
He sources some of his U.S. products directly from fish farms but for Canadian oysters he goes through dealers.
“They’re larger companies that aggregate from all the (seafood) producers and then and then distribute throughout the country,” he said.
There’s also a quality consideration.
“Canadian oysters simply have the size, flavor profile, and brand recognition that our customers prefer and have grown to love,” he said.
On Tuesday, most of his suppliers told Szeliga they’d be raising prices. He only made one purchase while the tariff was in effect, buying some “sweet petite” oysters from Prince Edward Island, to make sure a wholesale client had enough product. He paid the whole 25% markup himself and didn’t pass it along to his client, eating the extra cost. The suppliers’ price increases are likely to come down now that the tariffs are postponed, but only for a month.
Now that he has a month reprieve, Szeliga said he plans to adjust his own inventory and work with his wholesale clients to plan out a menu that will be less affected by the tariffs. That might mean replacing higher-priced, higher-quality oysters with domestic or lower-priced Canadian offerings.
“Now that we have a picture of what this is probably going to look like, let’s just start designing out your menus so that we’re prepared and it’s not complete bedlam again,” he said. “Even if prices come down, we know prices are going to come up to X, Y, Z (when the tariffs return).” He said he’ll be asking his clients, “What products are going to work for you in a month?”
