The future for tomato growers is a little murky following last week's decision by the U.S. government to terminate the U.S.-Mexico Tomato Suspension Agreement. "How this impacts us in the short, medium, and even long-term is unknown. We will see what happens now that the rule of law is being imposed," says Jon Esformes of Pacific Tomato Growers, who grows tomatoes in Florida and Tennessee but also in Mexico. His tomatoes from the latter region are grown exclusively to be exported to the U.S.
© Florida Tomato Exchange
Esformes doesn't accept the notion that tomato pricing will rise now that the 17 percent duty will be applied to tomatoes coming into the U.S. from Mexico. "By getting out of the Suspension Agreement, it eliminates the floor price that the Mexican industry was built on," he says. "Particularly since the minimum price on imported tomatoes went from $5.65 to $8.30. That's when there was a huge explosion in production coming out of Mexico. It was driven by growers seeking export dollars because every box they sold was to be no less than $8.30. That kept our markets swamped with tomatoes."
In turn, he now feels that the cancellation of this agreement has created a more open market. "The open market will decide whose tomatoes they want to buy and what they want to pay for. There's no better determining factor of what a farmer will plan for than the open market," Esformes says, adding that his goal is to ship tomatoes from Mexico, which he does in the winter starting in December, but not dump tomatoes into the U.S. market. "I want to be part of the solution, which is through the course of the next investigation, to have the duty go away. Because anti-dumping duties can go down or up based on the behavior of the exporting producers."
Next steps
For now, with his production underway in Tennessee, he is assessing the marketplace and determining where and when he wants to plant for the future. "We're going to proceed as normal. I don't see us making any significant adjustments to what it is that we're growing," he says.
© Florida Tomato Exchange
That said, he does note that Pacific Tomato Growers can scale up if the marketplace demands it. "If the imposition of the duties caused Mexican producers to cut back on their production and the American market wants more tomatoes, we can certainly grow them," Esformes adds.
He also notes that the bigger concerns on the part of U.S. tomato growers right now is about the general economic outlook. "Consumers are struggling to make ends meet. They're certainly looking more carefully at how they spend their food dollars," Esformes says.
For more information:
Jon Esformes
Pacific Tomato Growers
Tel: +1 (941) 722-0778
https://sunripecertified.com/
