The living isn’t so easy during the summertime for U.S. and backyard tomato marketers. There is substantially more year-round competition from Mexican imports than just a few years ago.
August trade statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture just became available. Check out these charts of U.S. tomato imports by country and by month for the past year, plus a look back at Florida shipments.
One easily recognized trend is the rise of tomato shipments from Mexico during the June through August period compared with five years ago. For example, in August this year, imports from Mexico were rated at 107,000 metric tons, up from about 60,000 metric tons in 2013.
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Finally, a look at Florida tomato shipments over the past few years.
