Sun, May 31, 2026 page9

• Tomatoes becoming bellwether of beleaguered US economy

  • By MATT SEDENSKY / AP, NEW YORK CITY
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  Tomatoes, ubiquitous in everything from fast-food burgers to haute cuisine, are taking on a new role beyond the plate: A nagging reminder of rising costs.

  Prices for the produce have soared more than any other food product over the past year to cement a spot as one of the consumer headaches du jour.

  “The tomato has become a symbol of something much deeper,” says Isaac Bernal Carbajo, a New York City chef who lamented life’s “simplest pleasures” falling victim to price increases. “Something as basic as buying fresh vegetables is starting to become a serious financial decision for many families.”

  

  Tomatoes await customers on the shelves of a supermarket in New York on May 26.

  Photo: AP

  Tomato prices are up about 40 percent over a year ago, according to the Consumer Price Index, dwarfing increases for other groceries, including coffee (up 18.5 percent), beef roasts (up 17.8 percent) and frozen fish and seafood (up 12 percent), among other products that have become symbols of America’s affordability squeeze.

  A separate inflation gauge released Thursday showed that overall prices increased 3.8 percent in April from a year earlier, the highest reading in about three years.

  Alongside crop yields, experts blame price increases for tomatoes, in part, on two pillars of US President Donald Trump’s second-term policies: the Iran war and tariffs. The war spiked gas prices and increased shipping costs. Meanwhile, the US withdrew from a deal allowing duty-free imports of tomatoes from Mexico, which grows most of the US supply.

  Usha Haley, a Wichita State University economist, says it is “a perfect storm of trade policy, extreme weather and Mideast policy.”

  American tomato farmers cheered the withdrawal from the tomato deal last July, saying it would help rebuild their withering industry. However, for consumers, it is been painful. Although the US withdrew from the Mexico tomato deal in July, it took time to see the impact in the produce aisle, with more imports in late winter and early spring.

  When the tomatoes arrived, they were hit with a 17 percent tariff.

  “Tariffs are undeniably a big driver of the price inflation,” says Brett Massimino, a Virginia Commonwealth University business professor. “Because the US relies on Mexico for the majority of its tomato supply, any changes in trade policy can have a large impact.”

  US tariffs collected on tomatoes ballooned from just US$16,424 in 2024 to about US$4.6 million, according to federal data, a staggering 27,879 percent increase.

  As the cost trickles down, outraged shoppers have pulled out their phones in the produce aisle, shooting videos lamenting costs they said quadrupled, with some people vowing to plant a garden to avoid prices of up to US$8 per pound. The impact has been most pronounced for businesses that rely on tomatoes as a key ingredient in their kitchens.

  MarginEdge, which tracks prices for restaurants, says grape tomatoes have increased most — 65 percent in just a month — but prices have gone up across all types of tomatoes.

  Phillip Coles, a supply chain management professor at Lehigh University, said prices should drop later in the year when domestically grown tomatoes are harvested. Higher prices, he says, would “induce farmers to increase planting to meet the demand, but this takes longer because of the lead time.”

  Meanwhile, it is translating to a big hit for businesses such as Snarf’s Sandwiches, which puts a tomato in nearly every sandwich it makes.

  Wayne Humphrey, chief operating officer of Snarf’s, which operates dozens of stores in Colorado, Missouri and Texas, said cases of tomatoes went from costing him US$27 to US$93 in the space of a year, piled on top of rising expenses for other ingredients including bread and beef, as well as increased labor costs.

  “That single ingredient now costs us more than [US]$1.7 million in additional spend annually,” Humphrey said. “The math is getting harder to ignore.”
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