Bloomberg reported a rise in prices for ketchups and tomato paste in the US
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The worst drought in California in 1,200 years, rising fuel and fertilizer prices have pushed up the price of tomatoes, tomato paste and ketchup in the US, reports Bloomberg.
Water scarcity is reducing output in a region that accounts for a quarter of the world’s processed tomato production. Growth in sales of tomato sauce and ketchup outpaces growth in US food inflation, which reached its highest level in 43 years, the agency said.
“We desperately need rain. We are approaching the point where we have no inventory left to continue meeting market demand,” said Mike Montna, head of the California Tomato Growers Association.
He noted that now in California it is very difficult to grow a crop of tomatoes because of the jumped up prices for fuel and fertilizers.
California groundwater restrictions and skyrocketing labor, fuel and fertilizer costs have created difficulties for growers like Woolf Farming. Woolf Farming vice president of agricultural operations Rika Blankenship noted that growing and harvesting tomatoes this season will cost about $4.8 thousand per acre (about 40 thousand acres) compared to $2.8 thousand 10 years ago .
Getting higher value from the field is usually an incentive for farmers, but this season’s contract price of $105 a tonne of tomatoes – a record high – may not be enough to overcome the industry’s woes, the agency said.
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