Tariffs on Egg Cartons are Lifted

From the desk of Mike McGriff, Director of Sales and Marketing, North America

On July 20, 2026, U.S. President Trump announced a 50% tariff on a significant number of Canadian-produced goods, effective August 22, 2026. These tariffs, imposed under Section 338, included HTSUS code 4823.70 (molded or pressed articles of paper pulp), which included molded fiber egg cartons manufactured at Hartmann’s Canadian facility and exported to the U.S. to meet critical carton demand for US egg producers and upcoming Holiday egg demand for US consumers.  We are happy to share the news that effective October 30, 2026, this tariff specific to our Canadian-produced egg cartons has been removed.  They are part of a very small list of items that the Administration decided to remove from the tariffs. This did not happen by accident.  Hartmann has worked tirelessly since the announcement to lobby on behalf of the egg industry and our customers to have this tariff removed.  We said repeatedly that this was not just a Hartmann concern; this was an issue that greatly impacted the egg industry on cost and supply at a time the industry was already facing historically low prices and ultimately would force consumers to pay more for their eggs.

Many producers and industry leaders stood by our side to help tell this story.  There are too many to list individually, but we would like to give special thanks to the American Egg Board and the United Egg Producer teams, as well as many of our customers and others in the industry who took up the battle.  You know who you are - Thank You!  We would also like to thank the Administration for seeing the wisdom in removing this tariff. 

As a result of the time the tariff was in place, there were some very difficult disruptions affecting carton supply.  We took every measure available to limit it.  It simply was not possible to supply 100% of our U.S. customer requirements from our U.S. operations alone, and we understood that a 50% cost increase was prohibitive for many of our customers.  We have incurred severe and significant costs in navigating through this challenge, but we saved our customers and consumers millions of dollars in the process, so we are confident we did the right thing.

I think it is important to note that prior to any discussions about tariffs, Hartmann was already doing what the Administration hopes to accomplish, which is to bring more manufacturing and jobs to the US.  Since 2017, Hartmann has invested significantly in building and expanding our US manufacturing operations.  No other egg carton manufacturer has invested more in US production capacity during this time.  Since our Missouri facility was commissioned n 2017, it has undergone 5 major expansions and hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and creating jobs for the surrounding community.  Most recently in December 2025 and currently on track for another in June 2027.

For those customers who stuck with us, tariff or no tariff, Thank You.  For those that couldn’t, we hope you recognize our efforts for the industry and give us another opportunity.   We recognize the disruption and uncertainty this created for our customers and their businesses. It will take some time to undo the consequences created by the tariff, but we have already started that process and are progressing rapidly with increasing production.