March 19, 2010

Sponsored by:

Maglio & Company

Tomatoes

Market Snapshot*

The U.S. Department of Agriculture was reporting the following prices on tomatoes:

Mexico (through Nogales, Ariz.): Two-layer flats, vine-ripes, 4x4s, 4x5s, 5x5s and 5x6s, $22.95; one-layer flats, greenhouse, size 22s, 28s and 32s, $16.95; 35s, mostly $14.95; 39s and 45s, $12.95-14.95.

South Florida: 25-pound cartons, loose, mature-greens, 85% U.S. No. 1 or better, 5x6s and 6x6s, $31.95; 6x7s, $29.95.

* Prices from the USDA's Fruit & Vegetable Market News, March 17.

The Shipping Scene

Weather gradually is starting to warm up in Florida, following a major freeze and several weeks of below-average temperatures, but it likely will be more than a month before tomato shipments are back to normal. Meanwhile, shippers are looking to other sources for their supplies.

Milwaukee-based Maglio & Company is sourcing product from Mexico and Puerto Rico, said Dana Summer, general manager.

The company is importing hothouse, vine-ripe, gas green, roma, cherry and grape tomatoes. Product from Mexico is entering the U.S. through McAllen, Texas, and Nogales, Ariz.

Although the company has some tomatoes to sell, like most shippers, it will tend to existing customers first, Summer said.

"The quality is fine," she said this week, but she added that Mexico fields sometimes have a whitefly problem around the end of March, and that could affect quality later on.

"Current supplies look very good," she said.

Summer is concerned about industry reports that Florida tomatoes might make a comeback by early April. She does not expect harvesting to start until the end of the first week of April, at the earliest. And, because of the lengthy cold spell, no one is sure what yields will be.

"I don't think they'll see the market straighten out and supplies straighten out until May," she said.

Despite tight supplies, Summer does not anticipate exceedingly high prices.

"There are checks and balances that are keeping the price from escalating out of control," she said. "As the price increases, we see the demand go down."

In Nogales, Ariz., Del Campo Supreme Inc. is shipping hothouse beefsteak and cluster tomatoes as well as some grape, roma and two-layer cartons of round tomatoes, said Jim Cathey, general manager and sales manager.

"Like most people in the tomato industry, we don't have enough," he said. "Certainly, there is a lot more demand than there is product at this point."

About half of the company's tomatoes already are committed, he added.

So far, this has been a good season for tomato growers south of the border.

"Growing conditions have been good, and supplies have been good," Cathey said.

Although shipments will continue into May, volume already is beginning to drop off, he said, and large tomatoes, which have been plentiful until now, are getting harder to come by.

"We're starting to see more of the mid- to smaller-size fruit," he said.

Leamington, Ontario-based Lakeside Produce is starting to wind down its Mexico program and ramp up production in Canada, said account manager Matt McShane.

The company is shipping tomatoes-on-the-vine and its Ruby and Stramato varieties.

Weather in Leamington is improving, with more sunlight shining through following a string of dreary winter days, McShane said.

The Stramato strawberry-cocktail tomato is one of the firm's strongest commodities, he said. "It probably has the highest brix level of any tomato on the market right now."

Demand is high for both the Ruby, another cherry-style tomato with a high brix level, and the Stramato, he said.

"As fast as we can pick them, we're selling them," McShane said.

Meanwhile, growers in Florida are looking forward to a strong spring crop, said Samantha Winters, director, education and promotion for the Maitland-based Florida Tomato Committee.

"We are encouraging our customers to plan late-April and May promotions to coincide with what is expected to be a bountiful harvest of excellent-quality, fresh Florida tomatoes," she said.

"The Florida Tomato Committee has been actively setting up customized promotions in the South and Northeast, with a special focus on the month of May through the first couple of weeks of June, when Florida tomato supplies are expected to peak," Winters said.

(By Tom Burfield, Western correspondent for The Packer. The Packer and Red Book Credit Services are part of food360º, a division of Vance Publishing Corp., Lincolnshire, Ill.)

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