Consumers will have to wait for a couple of weeks before tomato prices decrease, as it is only during the first days of November that the entry of tomatoes into the Wholesale Market will normalize and values will begin to go down significantly.
Currently, a kilo of tomatoes costs about 160, much more than is usual for this time of the year, because of a low supply.
Italo Tenca, the director of the Association of Farmers from Salto and delegate of the producers in the north, at the National Farm Board, said there had been various adverse climatic factors that, during fall, winter, and early spring, had generated a considerable decrease in production.
In October 2015 the price for a kilo of American tomatoes at the wholesale market ranged from 40 to 55 per kilo, which is normal, but now it ranges from 80 to 100 per kilo.
Tenca said the supply was usually low in October, but that this year the supply has been consistently low in recent months. "According to the National Agricultural Research Institute (INIA), there was the lowest brightness in 40 years in that period, which led to a decrease in production," he said. The excessive amount of days which were mostly cloudy and in which there was no sun, led to a very bad curdling level.
In addition, "the maximum temperatures were low - for many days the temperature did not reach 17° C - which greatly affects the tomato as it normally develops when the temperature is just above 20° C."
As a result of these factors, there are tomatoes, which normally are ready in 80 or 90 days, that have required more than 100 days to be ready.
Source: eloservador.com.uy