Queens, NY (March 23, 2026) Burlap & Barrel, an ecommerce retailer, leading purveyor of single origin ingredients, and a Public Benefit Corporation, has filed a lawsuit against the President of the United States and the administration. It is the first independent food company to file suit in response to the tariffs.
Founded by Ethan Frisch and Ori Zohar nearly 10 years ago, when they started carrying spices home from trips around the world in their checked luggage. It has since grown from its origins as a small experiment into a successful social enterprise working with partner farmers in more than 20 countries worldwide. Last year alone, Burlap & Barrel sent just under $2 million directly to spice farmers, and both the business and its impact continue to grow.
“When the tariffs were first announced last April, we made two promises: we wouldn’t increase our prices, and we wouldn’t pass those costs on to our partner farmers. A year later, we're proud to share that we’ve kept those promises. This lawsuit is about making sure we can continue to do so,” said Ori Zohar, Burlap & Barrel Cofounder & Co-CEO
Burlap & Barrel depends on global agriculture. Spices like black pepper, cinnamon, and vanilla aren’t grown commercially in the United States. Even when similar crops can grow here, many spices come from specific regions with long histories, unique varietals, and specialized farming and processing methods that can’t easily be replicated elsewhere. Their Herbes de Provence come from Provence, and their sweet, savory Purple Stripe Garlic grows in the northern highlands of Vietnam.
“We work with small-scale farmers around the world who grow unique versions of classic ingredients, like our royal cinnamon from Vietnam, an heirloom cinnamon species of which we are the only importer, or our Zanzibar black peppercorns, which are especially hot and citrusy because of the coastal jungle where they grow overlooking the Indian Ocean,” said Ethan Frisch, Cofounder & Co-CEO. “Most of our partner farmers had never exported to the US before, and one of our core values as a social enterprise has been to assist them in accessing a high-value market here. That way, they can sell their spices at their true value without selling through intermediaries and middlemen, and in turn, our customers in the US are able to access spices that have never been available to them before, at peak freshness and affordable prices. The new Section 122 tariffs directly threaten our business model, as well as our partner farmers and home cook and professional chef customers, and that’s why we’re suing the President to stop them.”
Recently, the Supreme Court ruled that the administration’s sweeping tariffs under the IEEPA emergency powers law were unlawful. That ruling reinforced what Frisch and Zohar believed from the beginning: these tariffs overstep the government’s authority and impose real costs on small businesses. This led them to partner with the Liberty Justice Center, which successfully challenged the “Liberation Day” tariffs in V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. Trump, to file a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade challenging the administration’s Section 122 tariffs.
When these tariffs were first announced last April, Burlap & Barrel made two promises: they would not raise prices, and they would not ask partner farmers to absorb the costs. A year later, they’ve kept those promises. This lawsuit is about protecting Burlap & Barrel’s ability to continue doing that.
“We’d also like to note that Liberty Justice Center is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public-interest law firm representing us completely at zero cost to our company,” added Frisch.
Read more about the lawsuit here:
https://libertyjusticecenter.org/cases/burlap-and-barrel-inc-v-trump/
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About Burlap & Barrel
Founded in 2016, Burlap & Barrel is a single origin spice company and social enterprise working directly with expert spice farmers in more than 20 countries to source unique, beautiful spices for home cooks and professional chefs. Burlap & Barrel's spices taste fresher and more flavorful because they come directly from small farms with a better-than-fair-trade sourcing model that establishes new supply chains to help improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. The lineup includes both exceptional versions of familiar spices like bestsellers Royal Cinnamon and Zanzibar Black Peppercorns, as well as rare botanicals like Amazonian Pompona Vanilla and Wild Timur Pepper from the Himalayas. For more information, please visit burlapandbarrel.com