Fruit & Vegetable Manufacturers NAICS 3114

Nov 23, 2025 - Trump Scraps Tariffs on Tropical Fruits

• President Trump has issued an executive order eliminating reciprocal tariffs on hundreds of food products, including tropical fruits and fruit juices, bananas, oranges, and tomatoes, 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. For example, in 2024, Guatemala was the top exporter of fresh and dried bananas to the US and the second-largest exporter of tropical fruits, two products that are now excluded from reciprocal tariffs, according to data compiled by Supply Chain Dive. Trump’s move comes amid lingering grocery inflation and growing consumer frustration with the high cost of living.
• A new underground cold-storage facility in a limestone cave beneath Kansas City, Missouri is the site of a new regional cold-chain hub designed to support food storage, refrigerated distribution, and temperature-sensitive logistics, Food Engineering reports. Located in SubTropolis, the world’s largest underground business complex, the nearly 19,000-square-foot facility provides a naturally climate-controlled, energy-efficient environment for maintaining frozen inventory with lower temperature fluctuation risk. The natural temperature and humidity conditions created by the limestone reduce utility costs by up to 70%. SubTropolis offers rail and truck dock access for efficient inbound and outbound logistics, which can reduce transit times and costs for frozen food producers. The facility’s Adaptive Growth Logistics model enables data-driven supply chain management, offering manufacturers smarter ways to scale while improving inventory integrity. For frozen-food manufacturers, this could mean lower spoilage risk, better cold-chain reliability, and more resilience in their distribution networks, according to FE.

• Aging food processing infrastructure, some dating back more than half a century, poses risks for food manufacturers, especially producers of perishable products that must move swiftly through the system to preserve freshness and quality, Food Processing (FP) reports. Older equipment is more likely to break down, interrupting production and potentially leading to product loss and unexpected replacement costs. FP notes that while processing plants have scaled up production and adopted more advanced technologies, underlying systems have struggled to keep up, resulting in a growing mismatch between modern operational demands and aging physical assets. Moreover, many aging plants may not be equipped to handle growing demand and regulatory scrutiny due to lack of capital investment over the years. Because environmental, safety, and building codes have evolved since many food processing plants were built, replacement costs can be substantial, according to FP.
• Producer prices for fruit and vegetable preserving and specialty food manufacturers rose 0.3% in August compared to a year ago, after rising 0.8% in the previous August-versus-August annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. After rising steeply from mid-2021 to mid-2023, wholesale price growth for fruit and vegetable manufacturers has stalled amid cooling food price inflation. Employment by the industry grew 3.6% year over year in July, while the average wage at fruit and vegetable manufacturers fell 1.5% over the same period to $22.27 per hour, down $1.20 from its record high in January, BLS data show.