Nationwide Tomato Shortage Stems From Harsh Florida Winter

(March 4) -- America's favorite fresh vegetable has had a rough winter, and consumers are beginning to feel the pain. An unusually cold January has destroyed 70 percent of Florida's tomato crop, resulting in a nationwide tomato shortage.

California grows tomatoes used in processing, but Florida is the center of the U.S. market for fresh tomatoes, shipping more than a billion pounds each year. Its tropical weather patterns allow it to dominate fresh tomato production while the rest of the country is too cold to grow. So with Florida tomatoes in such bad condition, prices have been skyrocketing.

"Doesn't matter though, because there isn't anything to sell," Reggie Brown, president of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, told the Wall Street Journal. A 25-pound box of tomatoes that cost $6.45 a year ago is now going for $30, he said.

A farm worker shows a tomato that cracked due to cold weather.

Alan Diaz, AP

A farm worker shows a tomato that cracked in cold weather in Homestead, Fla. on Jan. 4. A frigid January took a huge bite out of Florida's tomato crop, but growers expect regular production to resume in April.

Consumers are often blissfully unaware of fluctuations in the agricultural market, but the tomato crisis has gotten so bad that some fast-food restaurants, such as Wendy's, are posting signs about the shortage and offering tomatoes only if customers request them. Large grocery stores are hoping to absorb the price increase rather than pass it along to customers.

The farmers are the ones who are feeling the cold most keenly. The USDA estimates that freezing temperatures this winter cost Florida vegetable growers about $300 million.

Brown fears that the difficult agricultural market could have a hard time recovering, especially as wholesalers begin to increasingly look to Mexico for their tomatoes. "The market doesn't recover quickly when people stop consuming tomatoes. It takes a long time for customers to come back," he told the Tampa Tribune. Some growers, Brown said, "probably never will be made whole."

The effects of the cold snap also took a heavy toll on Florida's $9.3 billion citrus industry, and some fear that consumers will continue to feel the repercussions of the weather with other crops as well.

"We expect we'll have a similar situation with corn," Maria Brous, spokeswoman for the Publix supermarket chain, told the Wall Street Journal. "The severely cold weather from the South will continue to have an effect."

This was a difficult year for tomatoes elsewhere, too: During the summer, a severe outbreak of late blight ravaged the Northeastern tomato crop.

In Florida, re-planted tomatoes are developing slowly due to the cool weather, but growers expect regular production to resume in April. Until then, restaurants and consumers alike may have to continue taking thin slices.