TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — A trade dispute over tomatoes could put higher prices on your plate. Florida tomato growers say Mexican growers priced their products unfairly. The Federal government agreed so now most fresh tomatoes coming from Mexico get a 17 percent penalty.
The dispute goes back almost 30 years, Florida complained Mexico dumped tomatoes in US markets at prices too low to be fair to US producers. Mexico says it’s earned more market share with higher quality and tomatoes grown in greenhouses that produce tomatoes with greater efficiency.
After agreements that suspended trade penalties, the US Commerce Department is slapping Mexican tomatoes with 17.2 percent trade duties when they cross the border.
At Feast Restaurant chef and owner Doug Levy says tomatoes are such a part of good food that it’s hard to avoid them. He says he’ll try to limit how much of the charges end up on the customers’ checks.
”It makes margins that much tighter. You obviously can’t increase your pricing as dramatically as the prices are increasing on everything that comes through your back door because then you have an empty restaurant.”
The Wall Street Journal called the penalties pure protectionism for Florida growers at the expense of US consumers.
An editorial there says, in part, ”It’s a shame the Administration sided with the outcompeted few over the hungry masses.”
At the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, Lance Jungmeyer says soaring tomato prices could remind people of what happened to eggs.
“We're worried that tomatoes could become the next eggs over time, as fewer tomatoes are available in the marketplace, it wouldn't take much of a supply shock to really see that happen.”
Jungmeyer says it may take a few months for market conditions to kick in that will make consumers feel the impact of the trade penalties.
And he says penalties that raise the price of tomatoes are no way for the Trump Administration to keep its promise to reduce food prices.
