Last week, Senator Reverend Warnock visited Xocolatl Chocolate to meet with its owners and discuss the impact the Trump administration’s tariffs are having on Georgia small businesses

Xocolatl has been forced to pay tariff rates as high as 50% on some of the key ingredients it relies on to make its award-winning chocolate, including cocoa beans, which cannot be grown in the U.S. at scale due to climate limitations

These unanticipated costs have forced the company to pause its plans to hire additional employees in Georgia and invest in expanding its production capacity
 

Analysts estimate that tariffs will cost the average American household $2,400 in 2025

Senator Warnock: “It’s inspiring to see this Georgia business. Here’s a young couple that’s come back to the state and they are growing their business – which means they’re creating jobs and sustaining families. The last thing they need is government adding another burden to the work that they’re trying to do”

Senator Warnock (center) with Xocolatl Chocolate owners Matt (left) and Elaine (right)

Atlanta, GA – U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) stopped by Atlanta small business Xocolatl Chocolate last week to hear first-hand how the Trump administration’s trade agenda is impacting Georgia small businesses. Xocolatl employs more than a dozen Georgians in its award-winning factory and had plans to expand its operations until tariff rates instituted by President Trump forced Xocolatl owners Matt and Elaine to pause their plans. The company imports cocoa beans from central America and Africa due to climate limitations in the U.S., and imports sugar from Brazil 

Before the tariffs, Matt and Elaine said rising costs were already impacting the company. The couple was paying between $4,500 and $6,000 a ton for cocoa before the tariffs and are now paying $14,000 a ton on some of their beans. Despite their current challenges, Xocolatl continues to purchase paper for its packaging from a paper mill in Michigan rather than lower-cost options from China, supporting American industry. However, the wood pulp used in its paper products originates in Canada, which means tariffs are raising costs on the domestically sourced packaging as well.
  

See more stories about Senator Warnock’s visit to Xocolatl Chocolate in Atlanta below:

11Alive: Warnock talks concerns about tariffs with small business owners in Atlanta

• Sen. Raphael Warnock continued his August recess tour of Georgia small businesses on Tuesday with a stop at Xocolatl Chocolate in Atlanta.

• The senator met with co-owners Matt Weyandt and Elaine Read, in their small craft chocolate factory, where they make their chocolate from bean to bar. The husband and wife duo started their business in 2014 after discovering chocolate making while living in Costa Rica and said federal trade policies have created a climate of uncertainty that is especially tough on small businesses.
• “Our price even before the tariffs went into effect more than doubled over the last two years,” he said. “We were paying between $4,500 to $6,000 a ton for cocoa today before the tariffs, now we’re paying $14,000 a ton on some of our beans. And the price of our sugar has gone up…Cocoa just doesn’t grow in the United States. It’s the core of all of our products.”
• Warnock acknowledged the struggles Matt and Elaine described, saying they echoed what he has heard across Georgia.
• “Whether I’m in a red part of the state down in south Georgia, or in Atlanta, the story is the same,” he said. “This is a real burden on small businesses. We are seeing a 10% tariff tax on virtually everything from chocolate to cars.”
• The senator tied those issues together as part of a broader concern about Washington policies weighing on Georgia families.
• “This is a burden on our ability to grow businesses, to hire new people,” he said. “And 99% of the businesses in Georgia are small businesses. When you put this kind of burden on them, it’s a real damper on the job market.”

The Atlanta Voice: ‘Reckless and Unorganized’ tariffs are hurting small businesses in Georgia, says Senator Warnock

• The smell of raw chocolate immediately hits your nose upon entering through the front door of Xocolatl Chocolate in Atlanta’s Mechanicsville neighborhood. The small business, which employs 19 people, including the owners Matt Weyandt and Elaine Read, calls the once historic all-Black neighborhood home to its factory and tasting room. Set among a cluster of low-slung brick buildings, this was once home to small mechanic shops.
• Small business is the foundation of Mechanicsville, and Xocolatl Chocolate is one of those small businesses that has been birthed out of a newer Mechanicsville. Small business is also the foundation of commerce in Georgia, which has over one million registered small businesses, according to date from the U.S. Small Business Administration. Tariffs on countries that produce goods being used by small businesses in Georgia can negatively affect the business ecosystem.
• “99 percent of the businesses in Georgia are small businesses,” Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock said while seated next to Weyandt and Read on Tuesday morning. “Congress could put forward a more coherent tariff policy if it chose to do so, and so far, my Republican colleagues have ceded all of their power and authority to the Executive Branch.”

WSB Radio: Local chocolate factory in Atlanta says business is strained under tariff uncertainty

• A local chocolate factory in Atlanta says they have been under some strain amid the tariff uncertainty.
• The local business employs 19 people and co-owner Matt Weyandt says times have been challenging.
• “We have had to raise prices on our wholesale prices. We did that over the summer,” Weyandt said.
• Warnock says tariffs are costing small businesses.
• “This tariff agenda is a job killer,” Warnock said.

GPB: A small Atlanta chocolate factory is feeling the impacts of tariffs

• Georgia small businesses are feeling the impacts of tariffs on products they need to import. Tuesday, Senator Raphael Warnock visited a chocolate factory in Atlanta to learn how they are coping.
• Xocolatl is Atlanta’s only chocolate factory. The company imports cacao beans from central America and Africa since it is difficult to grow in the U.S., and imports sugar from Brazil.
• Xocolatl founder Matt Weyandt says increasing costs on raw materials and uncertainty around tariffs are presenting a unique financial challenge.
• Warnock emphasized his opposition to tariffs implemented by the President Donald Trump administration.
   
• “That tax is not something that Brazil is eating. It’s passed on to these small businesses. So, this tariff agenda is a job killer,” Warnock said.
   

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