Snow owl Co-owner of roasting Shayna FerulloOn CAPE COD, must pay prices on all the coffee it matters, but Hawaii is the only American state to cultivate harvest. She fears that she will be forced to dismiss employees, reduce their advantages and perhaps close her business due to prices.
Ferullo was among a handful of owners of Massachusetts companies, at the invitation of American Sen Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts, who spoke on May 8 President Trump’s prices had on their results.
Markey presented a law on the liberation of small businesses on May 5 which would free up small businesses from paying prices.
Ferullo and her husband, Manuel AinzuainWork with coffee producers all over the world. The price of 10% that they have to pay in addition to record prices for green coffee in January make it a frightening period, she said. The cape seasonal economy and uncertainty with prices make planning more difficult in advance.
The couple launched the roasting company ten years ago and transformed it to three cafes with 30 years and 70 seasonal employees. They import the coffee of small partners from Peru, Nicaragua, Kenya, Ethiopia, Colombia.
“We are a game of figures, a volume game,” said Ferullo. “We operate on tight margins. The fact of absorbing these costs is scary. This is a difficult period.”
There are 700,000 small businesses in Massachusetts, Markey said during the webinar. This results in approximately one company for 10 residents. Small businesses represent around 97% of all importers / exporters. They are Democrats and Republicans, and they suffer more than large companies – some who have obtained exemptions – with regard to the payment of prices, he said.
Markey took advantage of it during National Small Business WeekFrom May 4 to 10, to target what he calls Trump’s “irrational” prices.
“Small businesses are the backbone of the economy, but for small businesses, Trump prices are reassessed,” he said.
THE US Chamber of Commerce called for price exclusions for small businesses, said Markey.
The owners of Boston Pro Sound, 1854 Cycling, Rocheleau Tool and Die and Commonwealth Kitchen also explained how the prices specifically affected them.
Brandale Randolph’s Company, 1854 Cycling, in Massachusetts and Connecticut, Formerly employs imprisoned individuals, including 80% of women, to build, serve and program electronic bikes. Skills and living wages learn and win can help break the cycle of poverty that many of them experience, he said. Prices could be a death knell for the company, the women it employs and the communities in which they live, he said.
“Because we are hiring communities … It could destroy entire communities,” he said. “We are those who hire those that others have forgotten, the others incarcerated, those who do not have technical expertise. Think of us … Those who have no bank loans, who do not obtain venture capital and do not obtain exemptions from prices. Without exempt ourselves, you are to paralyze families. ”
“Prices are an absolute nightmare,” said Jen Faigel, co-founder and executive director of the non-profit association Commonwealth cuisine In Dochester, which represents more than 250 small emerging food companies. Unable to predict prices, uncertainty about the availability of products and the loss of markets due to financing reductions in local programs provide real pain, she said.
“Right now, our federal government actively destroys the fabric of our small businesses,” she said.
Denise Coffey writes on business, tourism and problems with an impact on residents and visitors to the CAPE. Contact it to DCOFFEY@capecodonline.com .
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