Tomato supply is anticipated to improve in the coming weeks following a challenging period. "The quality of tomatoes over the last several months, no matter if it's out of Mexico or Florida, has been fair to middle," says Roger Riehm of Blue Creek Produce. "It's been very strange. It's been hard to get consistency in the marketplace for pricing, availability and quality."
This is due to a few factors affecting the market, starting with growing conditions. Florida hasn't seen much rain over the last several months and has also seen some cold spells where the temperature has gone down to 34-36ºF, though not for extended periods of time.
© Blue Creek Produce
Mexico has also had its own weather issues, including cold temperatures but also rain. "They haven't had any consistency in quality," says Riehm. "There was also a shortage between old crop and new crop in different areas of Mexico and that's impacted things in the last 30 days."
All in all, it's made for strange pricing. "I don't know if I've seen pricing as low as I've seen it across the board this year overall," says Riehm, noting that over the last month, the pricing on Florida round tomatoes for example has been quite soft. Yet, Roma tomatoes, which do see stronger demand, have had higher prices–almost double the price of round for the same weight.
Tariffs and tomatoes
Tariffs also continue to be an issue for Mexican product following last summer's cancellation of the Tomato Suspension Agreement. "We just haven't had great markets up until the last several weeks," he says.
© Blue Creek Produce
However, with new crop coming on in regions such as Sinaloa, there's more volume again coming in via Nogales, Arizona and McAllen, Texas. "There's more volume coming in than we've seen in awhile. That said, it's a matter again of: can we get consistent quality to match the volume of the product, which has brought price down quite considerably in the last week, compared to where it's been," Riehm says. "It's a lot less than what Florida is currently."
On top of that, freight prices have also been stronger than usual on trucks out of Florida–Riehm estimates it was about a $5,000 freight differential of trucks from Florida and from Mexico which has added between $4.50-$5/box on freight going up the East Coast out of Mexico. "There just hadn't been enough trucks coming back from the holiday," he says. "There are a lot more tomatoes coming out of Mexico into these different areas, but they're having to compensate for their freight costs."
Looking ahead, overall both demand and supply are expected to improve in the coming weeks which is expected to level pricing out.
For more information:
Roger Riehm
Blue Creek Produce
Tel: +1 (630) 513-3075
[email protected]
https://bluecreekproduce.com/
