Exports of Scottish salmon to the United States have almost halved and the value of whisky shipments has fallen by a quarter, as President Trump’s tariffs continue to bite into two of Britain’s flagship food and drink trades.
Salmon sales to America dropped by 45.6 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, to £68 million, according to the latest Trade Snapshot from the Food and Drink Federation (FDF). The value of Scotch shipments to the US fell by 27 per cent to £182.1 million over the same period, with volumes down 14.7 per cent.
Across all categories, total UK food and drink sales to the US fell by 28 per cent to £529.6 million, with exports of gin, infant food, cheese, wine and other spirits to America all in retreat.
Trump introduced his initial set of tariffs in April last year. Although the UK secured a trade agreement covering some products, a US Supreme Court ruling meant most countries were eventually reset to an additional 10 per cent duty. In April, the president signalled he would lift the levy on Scotch following the state visit of the King and Queen, a move Business Matters reported on when Trump scrapped US whisky tariffs after the royal visit. The Q1 figures, however, capture a market still labouring under the duty.
The pain is not confined to the US. The FDF said total food and drink exports to all markets fell by 4.8 per cent to £5.7 billion, while volumes dropped 8.9 per cent to two million tonnes, the lowest in a decade outside the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Karen Betts, chief executive of the FDF, said it was concerning to see UK companies struggling to compete overseas. “The costs of producing food and drink in the UK are higher than in many competitor economies, from energy to employment, and constantly changing regulation only adds to these,” she said.
Salmon Scotland, the industry body, acknowledged the challenges but pointed to continued strength in important global markets. “Production levels have stayed steady and there are signs that more salmon is being sold at home, reflecting strong demand,” it said. “At the same time, global uncertainty has pushed up freight and insurance costs, making it more challenging to export to some markets.” The body has previously pressed ministers to go further, urging fresh talks to scrap the 10 per cent US tariff after the UK-US trade deal
For Scotch, the US remains the single most valuable market, and the industry’s reliance on it leaves distillers exposed whenever Washington reaches for tariffs. The Scotch Whisky Association has long warned that the spirit’s status as an internationally traded product makes open access to overseas markets central to the sector’s health.
The broader question for British exporters is whether these figures mark a temporary dip or a more durable loss of ground, a theme explored in our recent analysis of how Trump’s tariffs are squeezing UK exports. With imports from America up 11.5 per cent and the UK’s food and drink trade surplus with the US sharply narrower, the worry in boardrooms from Speyside to the sea lochs of the west coast is that customers, once lost to cheaper rivals in Chile or elsewhere, may prove hard to win back.
