Your cat’s food probably comes from thailand. Tariffs may change that.

Workers pack dental treats for dogs at Siam Inter Pacific in Bangkok on June 11, 2025. After rapid growth, Thailand is the biggest overseas supplier of pet food in the United States. Volatility in policy has some importers looking elsewhere. (Rebecca Conway/The New York Times)

By DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI

Over nearly 60 years and two generations, Chatchai Lertviwatkul’s family business in Thailand was transformed from a manufacturer of leather gloves to a producer of pet food and treats, with a third of its products shipped to the United States from a modest factory on the outskirts of Bangkok.

So when Lertviwatkul learned in April that President Donald Trump wanted to impose a 36% tariff on goods from Thailand, he was stunned. What would that mean for his company, S.I.P. Siam Inter Pacific, and the country’s pet food export industry?

After a decade of rapid growth, Thailand is now the biggest overseas supplier of pet food to the United States, accounting for more than one-third of all imported cat and dog food.

As Thailand and dozens of other countries near the end of a 90-day rollback of punishing tariffs to negotiate a permanent deal, Lertviwatkul, 52, said the shock had worn off, but the future of the company’s American business remained unclear.

“We need to see how the Thai government will negotiate,” he said, speaking above the hum of a factory churning out lickable cat treats for a Canadian customer and mint-flavored dog snacks in the shape of a toothbrush. “We need to wait and see,” he added. “There’s nothing much we can do.”

Trump’s tariffs are causing upheaval in supply chains and global trade. Businesses in Southeast Asia are scrambling because of the fluctuations in tariffs with the United States and America’s messy trade war with China. With so much volatility in trade policies, some companies are looking to shift their focus away from the United States.

If the July 9 deadline comes and goes with no deal and Thailand’s tariffs return to the 36% rate announced on what Trump called “Liberation Day,” Lertviwatkul, who produces food and treats that American brands sell, said he would temporarily halt supplying U.S. customers.

“We need to pause shipping to the U.S. unless something changes,” he said. “Our customers can’t increase the prices that much at retail.”

Before the announcement, Lertviwatkul expected a tariff of around 10% to 15%, never double or triple that. The three-month pause has given his company time to talk to customers and cut costs.

But, he said, even a 10% “baseline” tariff that Trump has left in place has proved challenging to weather. Any significantly higher rate would force Lertviwatkul to shift the company’s focus to customers in Asia.

Pet food is one of Thailand’s most significant and fastest-growing export industries. The annual value of its pet food exports has nearly doubled in the past five years, to $2.5 billion, according to the Kasikorn Research Center in Bangkok. It has piggybacked on the country’s robust seafood and food processing industry, using fish and meat byproducts for wet food and treats for pets.

The pet food industry started to grow rapidly during the first Trump administration, when many companies wanted to diversify operations away from China. When spending on pets spiked during the pandemic, companies added manufacturing capacity in Thailand to meet the surge in demand.

Purina, the pet food subsidiary of Nestlé, invested $150 million on a new factory making cat food in eastern Thailand three years ago. Mars Petcare, the company behind pet food brands like IAMS and Pedigree, expanded one of its Thai manufacturing facilities in 2021.

Zuru, a conglomerate in Hong Kong that makes a range of consumer goods including toys and beauty products, started building a pet food production site on Thailand’s eastern seaboard late last year. The plant, about the size of four football fields, is Zuru’s first pet food factory. The company plans to consolidate all of its manufacturing, including the products it outsources to other firms, in the country. Production is scheduled to start early next year.

Previously, it had worked with pet food manufacturers in China, the United States and Europe. Thailand was the best option, however, for centralizing its pet food business, the company said, because of the wide availability of raw materials and talent. Many large pet food brands have established research and development hubs in Thailand.

Zuru makes its toys in China, but Thailand was the better option for pet food — regardless of tariffs — because of the country’s supply chain.

“Thailand was really the only serious consideration,” said Alistair King, co-founder of Zuru’s pet care business.

King, 26, said Zuru was weighing where to set up its factory before Trump was elected, and committed to Thailand shortly after he won. At the time, the tariff for imported pet food from Thailand was zero, compared with 25% for goods from China. While it remains to be seen whether the White House will lower the tariff for Thailand, the expectation is that the rate will be lower than the levy on Chinese goods.

It also does not make economic sense to try to manufacture wet pet food in the United States because Trump put tariffs on aluminum, which inflates the cost of making cans.

“The more relevant thing, I think, for Thailand is how it is relative to other countries on the tariffs,” King said.