"Red sea" of tomatoes rolls into Calif. processing plants

By DENNIS POLLOCK Scripps-McClatchy Western Service July 23, 2001

FRESNO, Calif. - One manager for a plant that processes tomatoes calls it "the red sea," and it has begun to move down California roads in recent days - thousands of tons of bright red tomatoes ripe for squishing.

By the truckload, they are rolling into plants where processing goes on 24 hours a day.

And many in the tomato industry can hardly wait until the red sea parts, until a glut of that commodity fades. They recite a litany of woes all too common among farmers: problems of oversupply, lack of profitable planting alternatives, increased costs for harvest and processing.

And that's before they talk about the grasshoppers, the heat and then the cooldown.

"We've had a little bit of everything - hail, grasshoppers, disease - but it was the heat that caused the crop to be off," said John Welty, executive vice president of the California Tomato Growers Association, commenting on Fresno County's hottest May. Production has dropped 13 percent statewide from a year ago and could decline further because of weather setbacks.

Riverdale grower Mark Borba said any decline in production this year "will be helpful in getting inventories back in line," but it means dollars lost this year that can further compromise the reeling industry.

Both Borba and Ryan Turner, general manager for J&J Farms in Firebaugh, said one problem is there are diminished alternatives to processing tomatoes. "There are no other commodity options," Turner said. "The others are in the tank.

"For example, cotton prices are the same as they were 20 years ago, and the costs are double what they were four years ago. We're projecting a lot of bankruptcies this year."

The going rate for growers with contracts is $48 per ton. Two years ago, the price hit a high of $58 a ton. Historically, prices are in the mid- to low-$50 range.

To remain competitive in the past couple years, Turner said, many processors have instituted programs in which they do the harvesting, not the grower. That has made it easier for some "nontomato growers" to get into the business, Turner said, and in some cases, processors have charged more than the actual costs for harvesting: "That can take away from any margin."

Turner emphasized that the plant with which his farm contracts, Morning Star Packing in Los Banos, "has been very fair" in its pricing for harvest.

At Morning Star, president Chris Rufer talked of that company's purchase of a former Tri Valley tomato plant in Los Banos, a mile from the company's present Los Banos facilities.

"To use a term common to residential real estate, that's a 'tear-down,'" said Rufer said. "It will be torn down." Purchase of the plant is in escrow.

In addition, Morning Star has about 800 acres near Firebaugh where it could build another factory, but Rufer said that would only happen "when demand outstrips supply, when we have an inventory that will mean demand at a reasonable price."

The startup of processing is about a week late this year.

Ray Madeiros, manager of Los Gatos Tomato Products near Huron, said recent milder weather delayed this year's "red sea" deliveries. His plant and others will now run 24 hours a day through September.

-- Anonymous, July 24, 2001