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(Bloomberg) -- American cane-sweetened Cokes are on the way, risking a boost in demand for a type of sugar US farmers can’t fully supply and is critically vulnerable to Trump-era tariffs.

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Coca-Cola Co. said Tuesday it would launch a new product made with US cane sugar this fall. While the plan fell short of a complete move away from high-fructose corn syrup suggested last week by President Donald Trump, the push means the US may need to import more expensive sweetener from Mexico and Brazil — particularly if other companies follow suit.

The move threatens to worsen an already stressed supply chain, exposing American companies and consumers to higher prices just as they are facing market upheaval from Trump’s tariffs. US raw cane sugar futures are already more than double the cost of global contracts, and the gap widened to a record on Tuesday.

A Coke with cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup isn’t an outlandish idea. In fact, the soft drink in other countries like Mexico already uses the sweetener. And a version using cane from the US would help growers in Louisiana and Florida at a time when demand has been slow.

The problem is that the US doesn’t grow a great deal of cane, making up about 30% of overall American sugar supplies, according to the US Department of Agriculture. The rest comes from imports — about 2.2 million metric tons for the 2025-26 season — or American-grown sugar beets that perform better in colder climates.

If Coke’s cane-sweetened version is a success, if would likely put a dent in those US supplies. The higher demand could require more imports, especially from Mexico, which has historically been the US’s biggest sugar supplier, and top sugar producer Brazil.

Foreign shipments can be costly, as decades-old US government policies limit how much sweetener can be cheaply shipped from other countries. That has long kept US sugar prices above that of the global market, even when lower-taxed imports under the US’s limits and preferential shipments from Mexico were enough to keep the country amply supplied.

In recent years though, the US has become even more reliant on record amounts of high-taxed imports after droughts impacted Mexican supplies. Trump’s threat of a 50% tariff on Brazil also risks raising prices. If cane-sweetened Cokes are a success, higher demand would add to the pressure.

Refined cane sugar cost more than 52 cents a pound in June, about 12% more than the high-fructose corn syrup used in Coke and nearly 50% more than beet sugar, according to the USDA.

Coke has been working with cane sugar suppliers, and believes they will be able to bring enough supply to market if there is demand from consumers, Chief Executive Officer James Quincey said on Fox Business.

The new Coke product comes as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has railed against the prevalence of ultra-processed foods, which are generally more likely to use high-fructose corn syrup. The company’s move, while an incremental shift away from corn, could open the door for other companies to follow suit.

PepsiCo Inc. Chief Executive Officer Ramon Laguarta said last week that it would follow consumer preferences on sugar and other natural ingredients.

Coca-Cola uses cane in other US products like lemonades and teas, and is looking to use “the whole toolkit of available sweetening options to some extent where there are consumer preferences,” Quincey said on a Tuesday earnings call. The new Coke with US cane sugar is expected to be “an enduring option for consumers,” he added.

It is still unclear how much sugar these new products will require, said Claudiu Covrig, the lead analyst at Covrig Analytics. It could end up being a tiny segment with “more publicity than real volume,” he said. But if US beverage companies shift significantly toward cane instead of high-fructose corn syrup, additional imports could range from 300,000 to 800,000 metric tons.

Coca-Cola shares dropped as much as 2% Tuesday following the announcement, while PepsiCo gained as much as 3.3%. Shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., a corn syrup maker, rose as much as 2.4%.