Typically a standard garnish for hamburgers, sandwiches and salads, tomatoes have become a scarce luxury.
Three out of five round, field-grown tomatoes come from Florida during the winter, but an unexpected and prolonged cold spell that froze Florida's crops in mid-January wiped out most of the state's tomato crop.
With less of the vine-ripened produce available, fast food chains and grocery stores have been scrambling to get a hold of what they can for a much steeper price.
Restaurant chain Wendy's, for one, began warning customers about a week ago that if they didn't request a tomato slice, they wouldn't get one.
The cost of tomatoes has been "substantial," said Denny Lynch, Wendy's spokesman, refusing to say how much exactly. The biggest issue has been sheer supply, since getting any tomatoes at any cost has been a challenge, he said.
"We need tons of tomatoes, not bushels," he said. "No one expected such a prolonged freeze."
Defending the chain's decision to make tomatoes an option, Lynch said it was ultimately an issue of quality.
"We just think that we should let our customers know ... the supply that's available today may not meet their expectations," he said. And if you ask for a tomato, you won't be charged more to get "a bad tomato," Lynch said.
Tomato shipments from Florida were down 80 percent during the last week of January while imports from Mexico were up 32 percent. Total tomato supply was still down 14 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The price of fresh tomatoes bought at grocery stores was 19 percent higher compared to the same week a year prior, about $1.98 per pound compared to $1.29 per pound.
The California-based Stater Bros.supermarket chain has been paying a third more than it usually would for tomatoes and company chairman Jack Brown said he expected to raise prices by the end of the week as a result.
Ripe tomatoes are being left to rot in the dirt in a Florida field, decimated by a surprisingly bitter frost.
In January, farmers sold their tomatoes for about 58 cents per pound, nearly double the price during the same month a year prior. USDA economists don't have the data for February and March yet, but they expect to see that prices have risen higher than 58 cents per pound in those months.
"We can't afford to sell tomatoes under cost," Brown said. There wasn't much of a profit margin for tomatoes to begin with.
Brown said his San Bernardino-based company has been, and expected to continue, getting their tomatoes from Florida, but if the supply was diminished any more he could look elsewhere.
Candace Spiel, a Riverside-based McDonald's franchisee who owns nine locations in the region, agreed the cost to buy tomatoes had risen significantly since January.
"If this was a long-term problem, then we would certainly have to look at recipes and menu pricing," she said. But she felt the price would drop soon enough.
Harvests in California don't begin until May but by that time, there shouldn't be a shortage.
After the freeze swept through most of the crop in January, Florida farmers planted more tomato plants to make up for the losses. Those plants are expected to be ready for harvest by mid-April.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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