REMINDER: Sununu Profited from Rising Oil and Grocery Prices That are Hurting Local Seafood Businesses

REMINDER: Sununu Profited from Rising Oil and Grocery Prices That are Hurting Local Seafood Businesses

U.S. Senate candidate John Sununu has been backing Donald Trump’s tariffs and war with Iran even as recent reporting from WMUR shows New Hampshire “seafood shop owners say they're facing rising costs for their products, as customers continue to feel the pressure of price hikes across other food categories.”

Sununu not only backs Trump’s tariffs, saying “I completely understand what [Trump’s] trying to accomplish,” and claiming their economic impact “has been very modest, certainly hasn’t impacted inflation directly in any significant way,” but he’s also been “cheering on” Trump’s war with Iran, claiming its “objectives have largely been achieved.” 

Meanwhile, Sununu’s “large holdings of stock in food and retail giants” like Walmart, as well as his investments in Big Oil companies like Exxon Mobil and Shell, have helped him personally profit while Granite Staters and local small businesses struggle to keep up with rising costs due to Trump’s toxic tariffs and costly war of choice. 

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WMUR: Local seafood businesses absorb rising costs as prices continue to climb

• Seafood shop owners say they're facing rising costs for their products, as customers continue to feel the pressure of price hikes across other food categories.
• Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows fish and seafood prices jumped 6.2% over the past year.
• The increase is in line with a broader surge in grocery costs, and a rapid rise in oil prices stemming from the Iran War that sent diesel prices more than 60% higher than a year ago, according to AAA data.
• Rich Pettigrew is the owner of Seaport Fish Company in Rye. Since his family started the business in 1978, he's watched similar price escalations set the standard for what they offer moving forward.
• "Honestly, I sort of see it as the new benchmark," Pettigrew said. "Once you see things come up, you really never see them go down."
• Pettigrew says tariffs make it harder to buy imported shellfish from international sources, particularly Canada. The increase in transportation costs, alongside higher labor and packaging expenses, have added to the pressure.
• The United States imports between 70% and 80% of its seafood from places as far away as the Faroe Islands and Iceland, Pettigrew said.
• "You can definitely tell that people are more price conscious these days," Pettigrew said. "We just try to keep a fair price for the highest quality seafood that we can."
• [...] "Everything keeps on going up," Fullerton said, "so naturally it has to come out on the other end."
• Fullerton's internal perspective shines a light on those who make the seafood business run. He says fishermen face rising costs for fuel, bait, and insurance. That's on top of a markup between what fishermen receive and what consumers pay.
• "The prices of gas just keep going up," Fullerton said, "and that's going to affect every item that we all live with."
• For Fullerton, the local seafood experience he offers is one driven by freshness and industry wisdom. Haddock and cod from Iceland, for example, are filleted overseas, flown in overnight, and picked up the next morning.
• "The quality is what I offer, the knowledge of when it came in and where it came from," Fullerton said. "I can tell you pretty much everything you want to know to make you feel comfortable with what you're eating."
• [...]