Food Distributors NAICS 4244

Nov 30, 2025 - Trump Scraps Tariffs on 200 Foods

• President Trump has issued an executive order eliminating reciprocal tariffs on hundreds of food products, including coffee, tea, bananas, oranges, tomatoes, beef, tropical fruits, fruit juices, and more, Grocery Dive reported in November. In all, more than 200 agricultural commodities are now exempt from the 10% global tariff and country-specific duties imposed by the Trump administration earlier this year. The White House said the exemptions result from the administration’s progress on various trade deals, including with countries that produce agricultural goods not commonly grown in the US. Trump’s move comes amid lingering grocery inflation and growing consumer frustration with the high cost of living. The tariff rollback lowers costs and supply constraints for importers, which should travel through the supply chain to food distributors, retailers, and ultimately consumers.
• A merger that would have created the nation’s largest broadline distributor for restaurants and other foodservice providers has been called off, Supermarket News reported in November. US Foods and Performance Food Group (PFG), the US’s second and third largest distributors by revenue (behind Sysco) ended an information-sharing process begun earlier this year in anticipation of merging. The two companies, in consultation with independent financial and legal advisors, said they mutually decided to end merger talks after a review of the benefits of a combination along with regulatory concerns, according to a statement. Winning the approval of regulators was a major issue looming over the deal. A decade ago, federal antitrust regulators blocked a planned merger of Sysco and US Foods.

• Sprouts Farmers Market is among the latest grocery chains to assert greater control over its supply chain by bringing more sourcing in-house, Grocery Dive reports. The 440-plus-store natural and organic grocery retailer began sourcing fresh meat and seafood from its own distribution centers in the third quarter. Sprouts' move mirrors that of other grocers, including Walmart, which opened its first owned-and-operated case-ready beef facility in June, and Costco. Grocery Dive posits that Sprouts’ self-distribution push could signal that in-house sourcing isn’t just for the big national players who benefit from scale or for small independents with strong local ties, but also for regional and medium-sized chains. Given consolidation in the food distribution industry, which leaves smaller operators with less leverage to negotiate prices, and UNFI’s recent cyberattack, Grocery Dive writes that categories like fresh foods seem like ripe opportunities for supermarkets to explore for self-distribution.
• Producer prices for grocery and related product merchant wholesalers rose 10.2% in August compared to a year ago, after jumping 12.2% in the previous August-versus-August annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Wholesale grocery prices have been rising steeply since about mid-2021, but have eased somewhat from their peak in March of this year. Employment by grocery distributors grew 1% year over year in July, while the average industry wage inched up 0.6% over the same period to $27.61 per hour, just shy of its peak in June, BLS data show.