It is the end of an era – and at the same time a harbinger of a policy that does not protect but destroys. Del Monte Foods, a giant of the American food industry and for generations also present in German supermarkets, filed for Chapter 11 protection on July 1, 2025. The company, founded in 1886 and synonymous with canned fruits and vegetables, is on the brink of being sold off – crushed by a mix of global market disruptions, shifting consumer behavior, and above all: Donald Trump’s tariffs. With a $912.5 million debtor-in-possession financing, Del Monte now seeks a buyer under court supervision. It is a desperate attempt to save the brand. But the damage is done – and it extends far beyond the company itself.
The reasons for the collapse are complex – but one factor stands out: Trump’s economic-nationalist trade policy. The massive surcharges on steel and aluminum, introduced under the pretense of making America great again, have not created jobs but strangled companies. For Del Monte, whose packaging systems rely on imported raw materials, the tariffs meant a massive cost explosion. Added to that were high interest rates on old debt, persistent inflation, and a growing consumer base that, in light of rising living costs, is deliberately turning away from processed foods. The trend is toward fresh, organic, local – canned fruit has become a relic. But instead of investing in transformation and sustainability, Del Monte became a pawn of political ideology: protectionism made a company inflexible that was already operating at the edge of its capacity.
That it is Del Monte of all companies that falls – a name associated worldwide with the idea of American freshness and industrial prosperity – is more than just a business failure. It is the collapse of a symbol. A cautionary tale of how a government, under the banner of patriotism, cuts a path of destruction through the economy. Trump plunged the world into a tariff war that did not crush China’s industry but rather America’s middle class. Del Monte was not a startup without a plan, not a tech balloon with no substance. It was a rock, a company with history, billions in revenue, contracts in over 90 countries – and now a wreck, abandoned on the altar of nationalist economic policy. That the president still speaks of economic growth in 2025, even as the most storied brands around him collapse, reveals the full absurdity of his rhetoric. Whoever holds a can of peaches today holds a relic of a chapter that is now closing. And it does not end quietly. It ends with a bang – from Washington.
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