Prices of Baby Formula, which Continues to Face Shortages, Likely to Rise in 2023

By Yehudit Garmaise

Imported baby formula prices will likely rise now that the US Congress has reinstated the tariffs that were suspended earlier this year to speed the influx of nutrition for babies amidst a nationwide shortage that started in February.

While suspending tariffs for imported baby formula helped to increase the supply of nutrition for hungry babies.

The return of the baby formula tariffs, however, which can go as high as 17.5%, will likely raise the product’s prices.

Many Boro Park parents of little ones are most concerned with how the reinstatement of the tariffs will affect supply, which remains lacking in the neighborhood.

Some brands are simply out of stock at many local stores, while other stores continue to limit the containers of baby formula customers can buy each day.

“Every grocery store in Boro Park has been out of Kendamil for weeks,” Mrs. Friedman, a Boro Park resident, told BoroPark24.

Avraham G. said that he and his wife, who have a 9-month-old, can find Similac Advance, Lamedhadrin, but they can only buy one container at a time due to the store's limited quantities.

Although New York parents report the trouble they have been having buying baby formula, in November, Jim Mulhern, the chief executive of the National Milk Producers Federation wrote to lawmakers to tell them that the baby formula supply had improved enough to allow for the return of the tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In early December, Reckitt, the maker of Enfamil and one of the nation’s largest baby formula manufacturers said that the US infant formula shortage, could persist until spring.