Post by heavyhitterokra on May 30, 2019 21:20:55 GMT -6
Will tomato prices rise in 2019?
I've been in the business of growing garden fresh, market tomatoes for a little over a decade. I pick my own homegrown tomatoes, fully ripe, the same day that I sell them. I don't refrigerate them at all, I deliver them fresh, with the heat of the day still in the fruit. I never stack the tomatoes more that two high, so they don't bruise. I pull the stems off, so they don't poke holes in adjacent tomatoes in the box.
I don't do things the way big box farms do; they'll pick an entire cluster of blushing green tomatoes and tell you they ripened on the vine, by placing them in cold storage, under ethylene gas, in the back of a refrigerated semi truck trailer.
You can always tell a real vine ripened tomato by the shape the vine is in when it's delivered. If the vine looks like it has been dehydrating in storage for over a week, it probably has been. Not to mention, real vine ripe tomatoes still have the heat of the sun in their fruits. (They should never be chilled). Chilling ruins both the flavor and the texture of real vine ripened tomatoes.
When I first started this homegrown tomato business, it was quite a bit of extra work to do things the way I did, but people seemed to really appreciate it, and I got decent prices; about $25.00 per Lug; so that made it all worthwhile.
I started with just one customer, plus a few tail gate sales along the sidewalks in Downtown Tahlequah. Eventually, I built my customer base to include nine local restaurants, two grocery stores, a local Health Food Store, and weekend sales at the Tahlequah Farmers Market. From time to time, I sold a few things to Cherokee Nation and even helped host a State Legislator's Dinner, featuring a menu of all things Oklahoma.
My garden inventory went from growing 30 caged tomato plants per season, to growing 300 caged tomato plants per season. Eventually, nearly, my entire garden space became dedicated to growing tomatoes. I would hand pick and sell tomatoes the same day, sometimes as much as 300 pounds of tomatoes per day.
Unfortunately, as the years marched on, big box companies, slowly drove down prices in Tahlequah, and other places, by importing low quality, Styrofoam tasting, blush colored, green picked, refrigerated tomatoes from Mexico and letting them ripen on the truck.
The introduction of tomatoes from Mexico, caused the local wholesale price of tomatoes to drop to 65 cents per pound ($13.00 per lug). They looked horrible, they tasted horrible, and they were horrible, but local fast food places, like Taco Bell or McDonald's didn't take any of that into consideration; all they cared about were cheap, cheap, cheap, tomatoes.
Over the years, the Mexican tomato market all but put me out of business. I couldn't justify all the work that goes into growing, harvesting, washing, drying, packing, sanitizing, and delivering a truck load of homegrown tomatoes for 65 cents per pound. For that reason, I switched to okra almost exclusively, by 2017.
Today, while listening to NPR on the Radio, I heard that President Trump is about to impose a 5% Tariff on all imports from Mexico, until they do something about curtailing the problem of mass migration.
www.npr.org/2019/05/30/728484981/trump-announces-new-tariffs-on-mexico-to-force-cooperation-on-illegal-immigration
Starting June 10th, a 5% Tariff will be imposed on all imports from Mexico. Starting July 1st, the Tariff will go up to 10%. Each month, on the 1st day of the month, the Tariff will go up by increments of 5%.
Supposedly, if the problems are not solved by October 1st, the Tariffs will be up to 25%. In my mind, "All Imports From Mexico" would include tomatoes ... Like all things political, we'll just have to wait and see.
I'm kind of halfway, expecting a possible tomato shortage, although, it may be sometime next year ... By the time Tariffs bring tomato prices above 70 cents per pound, this current gardening season will probably have ended; as 5% of 65 cents is only about 3 cents. Raising the wholesale price of tomatoes to 68.25 cents per pound, will not help US Farmers much, any time soon.
I think the biggest factor to come into play by the end of the current gardening season, will be the affect that flooding has had on local agriculture. It's really hard to predict the outcome of things like this because most of our tomatoes would probably be shipped here from Texas, Florida, and California, if local agriculture collapsed.
All in all, though, I'd predict the possibility of a slight rise in local tomato prices by mid-July. At least I hope so. It has been too long since I've made a decent income selling things fresh at the local market. I have a tractor and a lot of gardening equipment to pay for.
I've been in the business of growing garden fresh, market tomatoes for a little over a decade. I pick my own homegrown tomatoes, fully ripe, the same day that I sell them. I don't refrigerate them at all, I deliver them fresh, with the heat of the day still in the fruit. I never stack the tomatoes more that two high, so they don't bruise. I pull the stems off, so they don't poke holes in adjacent tomatoes in the box.
I don't do things the way big box farms do; they'll pick an entire cluster of blushing green tomatoes and tell you they ripened on the vine, by placing them in cold storage, under ethylene gas, in the back of a refrigerated semi truck trailer.
You can always tell a real vine ripened tomato by the shape the vine is in when it's delivered. If the vine looks like it has been dehydrating in storage for over a week, it probably has been. Not to mention, real vine ripe tomatoes still have the heat of the sun in their fruits. (They should never be chilled). Chilling ruins both the flavor and the texture of real vine ripened tomatoes.
When I first started this homegrown tomato business, it was quite a bit of extra work to do things the way I did, but people seemed to really appreciate it, and I got decent prices; about $25.00 per Lug; so that made it all worthwhile.
I started with just one customer, plus a few tail gate sales along the sidewalks in Downtown Tahlequah. Eventually, I built my customer base to include nine local restaurants, two grocery stores, a local Health Food Store, and weekend sales at the Tahlequah Farmers Market. From time to time, I sold a few things to Cherokee Nation and even helped host a State Legislator's Dinner, featuring a menu of all things Oklahoma.
My garden inventory went from growing 30 caged tomato plants per season, to growing 300 caged tomato plants per season. Eventually, nearly, my entire garden space became dedicated to growing tomatoes. I would hand pick and sell tomatoes the same day, sometimes as much as 300 pounds of tomatoes per day.
Unfortunately, as the years marched on, big box companies, slowly drove down prices in Tahlequah, and other places, by importing low quality, Styrofoam tasting, blush colored, green picked, refrigerated tomatoes from Mexico and letting them ripen on the truck.
The introduction of tomatoes from Mexico, caused the local wholesale price of tomatoes to drop to 65 cents per pound ($13.00 per lug). They looked horrible, they tasted horrible, and they were horrible, but local fast food places, like Taco Bell or McDonald's didn't take any of that into consideration; all they cared about were cheap, cheap, cheap, tomatoes.
Over the years, the Mexican tomato market all but put me out of business. I couldn't justify all the work that goes into growing, harvesting, washing, drying, packing, sanitizing, and delivering a truck load of homegrown tomatoes for 65 cents per pound. For that reason, I switched to okra almost exclusively, by 2017.
Today, while listening to NPR on the Radio, I heard that President Trump is about to impose a 5% Tariff on all imports from Mexico, until they do something about curtailing the problem of mass migration.
www.npr.org/2019/05/30/728484981/trump-announces-new-tariffs-on-mexico-to-force-cooperation-on-illegal-immigration
Starting June 10th, a 5% Tariff will be imposed on all imports from Mexico. Starting July 1st, the Tariff will go up to 10%. Each month, on the 1st day of the month, the Tariff will go up by increments of 5%.
Supposedly, if the problems are not solved by October 1st, the Tariffs will be up to 25%. In my mind, "All Imports From Mexico" would include tomatoes ... Like all things political, we'll just have to wait and see.
I'm kind of halfway, expecting a possible tomato shortage, although, it may be sometime next year ... By the time Tariffs bring tomato prices above 70 cents per pound, this current gardening season will probably have ended; as 5% of 65 cents is only about 3 cents. Raising the wholesale price of tomatoes to 68.25 cents per pound, will not help US Farmers much, any time soon.
I think the biggest factor to come into play by the end of the current gardening season, will be the affect that flooding has had on local agriculture. It's really hard to predict the outcome of things like this because most of our tomatoes would probably be shipped here from Texas, Florida, and California, if local agriculture collapsed.
All in all, though, I'd predict the possibility of a slight rise in local tomato prices by mid-July. At least I hope so. It has been too long since I've made a decent income selling things fresh at the local market. I have a tractor and a lot of gardening equipment to pay for.