Trump tariffs create beer can shortage for P.E.I. Brewing Company

Tariffs brought in by the United States in July have had an impact on P.E.I. in at least one way.

The P.E.I. Brewing Company suffered a shortage of cans for beer in July, and owner Kevin Murphy said it's attributable to the tariffs.

"We started experiencing a shortage of cans from our suppliers," Murphy said. "When Trump came with his tariffs, that inventory supply was bought up by large producers of aluminum and left the canning industry with a shortage."

It's happened before, Murphy said, but not in mid-summer.

"To happen in the middle of the summer, for all craft brewers in the country, it was a significant inconvenience."

The tariffs also increased the cost of production by about 10 per cent, Murphy said.

It meant their new Colliding Tides gin was not available for seven or eight days, along with a couple of other brands.

No price increase

"We like to make sure when we launch a product, that it's there for the consumer and it's there on a consistent basis."

On the bright side, the demand for Colliding Tides was strong when it began to be sold again.

Some craft brewers in the Maritimes are looking at raising their prices by five or 10 cents a can, but Murphy isn't ready to do that yet.

"We don't want to overreact. We want to let this roll through to the fall and get a forecast of what the aluminum and the can pricing will be for 2019."

'Couldn't have happened at a worse time'

Murphy said he believes the aluminum shortage even affected the large multinational brewers. There are only three main suppliers, he said.

"If this happened in January, there'd be no problem. When it happens on July 15 when the beer business in the country is at its peak, that's when you run into problems. It couldn't have happened at a worse time for the industry."

Can sales are growing and bottle sales are declining, Murphy said, so the brewing company didn't consider using more bottles.

More P.E.I. news