"We desperately need rain," Mike Montna, head of the California Tomato Growers Association, said in an interview. "We are getting to a point where we do not have inventory left to keep fulfilling the market demand."
This United States region is responsible for a quarter of the world's output of tomatoes. However, with "climate-change" forecasts calling for hotter and drier conditions, the outlook for farmers is uncertain.
"It's really tough to grow a tomato crop right now. On one side you have the drought impacting costs because you don't have enough water to grow all your acres, and then you have the farm inflation side of it with fuel and fertilizer costs shooting up," Montna added.
According to Rick Blankenship, vice president of farming operations of Woolf Farming, a Fresno County-based grower and processor, California restrictions limiting groundwater use and soaring costs for labor, fuel and fertilizer have caused headaches for producers.
"It costs around $4,800 an acre to grow and harvest a tomato crop these days compared with $2,800 a decade ago," Blankenship said in an interview. "Most of the increases have been in the last two years. This season's bounty costs more and delivers less."
He pointed out that yields are way off this year, coupled with drought, and the high temperatures and that in itself creates an issue where the tomatoes are so hot that they just don't size properly.
"You would think that it was a home run for growers, but in reality the input costs have gone up so much that the potential profit was all gobbled up," Blankenship said.
The California crop has been below the recent production peak of 14.4 million tons in 2015 for the past six years, and 2022 is shaping up to continue the trend, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) data. The industry expects this year's harvest to fall below the USDA's 11.7 million tons estimate.
"Despite low supply and a substantial increase in price, contracted production has dropped significantly compared to the beginning of 2022," the USDA May report stated.
Study predicts decline in tomato yields due to increase in air temperature
A study published in Nature has predicted a six-percent decline in tomato yields in major growing regions such as Italy and California by 2050.
The study said an increase in air temperature in big tomato-growing regions will cause a decrease in yield. Also, water restrictions and drought are factors that will likely lead to Italy and California being unable to uphold their current processing tomato production numbers. (Related: A horrifying drought is causing widespread crop failures throughout the United States and Europe.)
Led by researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark, the study includes a mathematical model that when expanded over a longer period of time would predict that the processing tomato yield could be cut in half between 2050 and 2100.
R. Greg Pruett, sales and energy manager for Ingomar Packing Co., one of the world's biggest tomato processors, commented that there are simply not enough acres of processing tomatoes being planted this year to ensure that everybody gets their full supply. He added that the water is either too expensive or just not available at any cost.
"If you are looking for a significant amount of tomato paste and you haven't already contracted it, then you aren't going to get it no matter what the price is," Pruett said in a phone interview.
As per Bloomberg, since tomato-based products are hard to substitute, demand isn't especially sensitive to price changes. The price of tomato sauce in the four weeks ending on July 10 is up 17 percent from a year ago while ketchup is 23 percent higher, according to market research firm IRI.
Analysts say this may be a part of the "climate change" narrative of the alarmists targeting the food supply for total global collapse.
Watch the below video that talks about what is really going on with the drought, the corrupt California government and the globalists they serve.
This video is from the TruthSeeker channel on Brighteon.com.
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