US: busy hurricane season puts tomatoes in the red
Prices force restaurants to limit use

Businesses are limiting the use of tomatoes in the wake of a shortage that has left restaurants scrambling for suppliers and many tomato lovers broken-hearted.

"I know some restaurants are telling the customers they simply have no tomatoes," said Eddie Smeen, owner of Skewers, a restaurant in Indialantic. "I can't do that to the customers. They love tomatoes, so what we do instead is limit the use of tomatoes and we just make do."


Price increase. Andy Bryant of The Produce Place at Suntree arranges a display of tomatoes from Ruskin. Prices have gone up on the fruit because of damage from Hurricane Wilma.

Hurricanes hit tomato growers in the southern part of the state, and it has been a difficult recovery, said Terence McElroy, spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

"As you know, Florida got hit pretty hard by Wilma in the winter vegetable region, which is South Florida," McElroy said. "A lot of the tomato growers had to replant. We'll still have a winter crop, but large volumes probably won't be available before January." Alfred Peterson, Valkaria resident and tomato-lover, said he was simply going to switch his alliance in the face of expensive tomatoes.

"I like the roma tomatoes, they save better and they're more solid," he said. "I'm not afraid of a stove, so I like to cook with tomatoes too. But I'm surprised the tomatoes haven't made a comeback yet. You can plant them and they grow quickly." But for restaurateurs who use a lot of tomato in recipes, the price hike is like a bad dream.

"It's a nightmare with no relief in sight," said Lou Andrus, owner of Dos Amigos Cantina, north of Indialantic. "Tomato is in almost everything on the menu. We make our salsa fresh daily, and we don't charge for it. I guess I'm going to start looking at the tomatoes from Mexico."

Liz Compton, spokeswoman for Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson, said while the price increase on tomatoes hasn't been huge, it has lasted a long time.

"They spike pretty quickly but usually they come back down quickly," Compton said. "We're not seeing a huge price increase, but it has lasted several months so far." Most supermarkets have enhanced their tomato selection with produce from out of the country.

"For the past several weeks prices have been affected by Wilma," said Maria Brous, director of media and community relations for Publix. "Hurricane Wilma hit the crop that we're receiving now and that crop is limited. The prices are higher than they were at the earlier part of the year, prior to Wilma. There are some items customers will purchase all the time, and tomato is a staple."

Scott Merson, co-owner of The Produce Place in Melbourne, said consumers are going to have to be less picky.

"Tomatoes that I'd normally pay about $12 to $14 box for are going for $40 a box now," Merson said. "For the next two months it's bleak. If you can find a tomato and it looks decent, you're lucky. You're going to see a lot of tomatoes from other countries."

Aaron Kruger, produce manager for Sunseed Food Coop of Cape Canaveral said his company always keeps prices down -- his "regular" tomatoes sell for 99 cents a pound and organics are $1.99 -- no matter what, but he's expecting shortages soon. "We may run out on Christmas Eve, but we're expecting the tomato crop to come back after that," he said. "We hope it will."

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