Tomato Prices up? Why? Hurricanes!

If you have seen tomato prices lately you have seen that they are WAY WAY up. In fact they are so high that I have been told that many local fast food places have stopped serving them unless asked.

In fact we have largely quit selling vine-ripe tomatoes because hydroponic tomatoes (grown more locally---often in Ontario in greenhouses) have suddenly become cheaper. (For the record they also taste much better!)

So why are the prices so high? There is a severe shortage largely due to the bad hurricane seson in Florida.

From the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

"With Wendy's buying power, we pay a little less than market price. Our cost went from 75 cents a pound to over $3 a pound. That's horrendous," Smith said.

Tomatoes in area grocery stores are marked $3.99 a pound.

Storms on Oct. 19 and 20 and Oct. 26 and 27 reduced tomato shipments from California by 60 percent to 3.3 million pounds a day. Shipments of plum-type tomatoes were reduced 65 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The storms followed on the heels of hurricanes that prevented or damaged the fall planting of tomatoes and bell peppers in Florida. Delayed shipments from Florida were expected to begin late this month, and market volume was projected to return to normal in December, the USDA said."