There’s only a couple weeks remaining until July 14, the date the termination of the U.S.-Mexico Tomato Suspension Agreement will take effect. That is why it’s critical for those in the fresh produce industry who want the two countries to remain in the agreement to take action, says Dante Galeazzi, the president and CEO of the Texas International Produce Association.
“Right now, we’ve got 13 days — 13 days to make sure that the U.S. government hears our concerns and acts on them,” he says.
Galeazzi says that more than 500 companies sent a letter to the Department of Commerce earlier this year in support of remaining in the Tomato Suspension Agreement, but he adds that it’s time for more voices in the industry to speak up in support of remaining in the agreement.
“This is the time now where industry has to do something,” he says. “We need more voices.”
Galeazzi says activism can look like many different things, including taking a photo in a warehouse with some tomatoes; share the lives impacted by the business and how many stores sell those tomatoes and anything else impactful and then tag the appropriate senator or representative.
“Our timetable is very short,” he says. “We’ve got to influence this decision before Monday, July 14.”
It’s also close to the Fourth of July, when tomatoes will likely be a part of holiday meal celebrations. Perhaps that’s another opportunity to discuss with those outside of the fresh produce industry the impacts of the tomato suspension agreement and have those friends and family post something in support of the agreement, he says.
“[Say] ‘Hey, I love my tomatoes. Thank you, Tomato Suspension Agreement. By the way, Congressman or Congresswoman X, why don’t you tell the Department of Commerce to keep the TSA. It’s not like you’re not posting that meal to social media anyway, it might as well have some political advocacy to go with it,” Galeazzi says.
He also says it’s a misconception that what happened between May and September in 2019, when the parties involved negotiated a new Tomato Suspension Agreement, would happen this time around.
“Folks point out, ‘There wasn’t a dramatic change to our market prices at that time,” he says. “I’ll say, ‘Yeah, because that’s the summer. That’s not when the bulk of the volume from Mexico comes across. That’s when you have the bulk of the domestic supply augmented by the Canadian imports during the winter, which is where we will feel the biggest impact.”
More than 2.2 billion pounds of tomatoes cross through Texas, and Galeazzi says the impact from the loss of industry would be significant. It’s not just workers in the warehouses, he says — it’s clerks, sales, marketing grower operations; it’s the border towns that will feel the brunt of the impact due to fewer tomato imports.
“I believe that there is more than enough opportunity for domestic grown and international grown on the store shelf,” Galeazzi says. “We have so many mouths to feed in this country that there’s plenty of space at the store for both sides. We should not be trying to eliminate anybody, especially those who are playing by the rules and this agreement is so important to them.
But, Galeazzi says, the most important thing is to make sure those legislators and the Department of Commerce remember the importance of the Tomato Suspension Agreement.
“Now is the time for action,” he says. “You have an entire week next week, July 7 to July 11, to go and do something. The industry needs to speak up and we have a short window to do it.”
