Conventional tomatoes are picked when they’re still green and hard. Afterwards these green tomatoes are ripened with ethylene gas- and the color changes to red.
Ken Shoemaker is CEO for Lipman Produce. He says as the largest fresh tomato producer in the country – they have to pick them green.
“Years ago all of us remember that tomato flavor from grandma in the backyard in the middle of august but grandma’s crop only lasted two or three weeks”, Shoemaker pointed out. “We are refreshingly dependable and to do that we have to have crops 52 weeks a year which changes how we have to grow.”
Then there’s the weather. It seems that everything that can kill a tomato plant thrives in Florida’s tropical humidity. Tomatoes need DRY weather. So, growers rely on lots of pesticides, fungicides and other chemicals.
Barry Estabrook, is a journalist and author of the book Tomatoland. He says it’s unlikely Florida growers will change their way of doing things.
“They’re big factories, they’re big assembly lines, the trucks…they have a huge investment in that. For them to change, they would have to abandon millions, and millions, and millions of dollars’ worth of factories and infrastructure”, Estabrook said.
If you’re old enough you may remember when grocery stores only offered one type of tomato- usually three of them in a little cellophane wrapped package.
“I live in Vermont in a small town and we kinda have a crummy supermarket as far as produce goes but I walked in there the other week. I could get four dollar a pound hydroponic tomatoes” Estabrook said. “I could get grape tomatoes. I could get cherry tomatoes. Tomatoes on vine .. I could get on and on and on.”
Now back to those imports. There are those vine ripe tomatoes in Mexico and hydroponics from Canada - grown in greenhouses. This is known as protected agriculture. Organic and specialty produce. More and more consumers like that. Shoemaker from Lipman Produce says they’re not moving to greenhouse production any time soon.
“We’re still very bullish on growing outside”, Shoemaker said. “There’s a lot more product being grown under protected ag but still we believe good ole sunshine and dirt grow the best tasting, most flavorful healthy tomatoes.”
In this vault, there are about 25,000 packets of seeds- each genetically unique. Estabrook has been following the industry for about a decade. He says Florida growers need to modernize in order to compete in the fresh tomato market.
“I would say that Florida growers should start trying to shift as much of their efforts as they can to these premium added value crops, tomatoes that really taste good”, Estabrook said.
But this thinking makes people at Lipman bristle. They’ve been a family business- supplying conventional tomatoes for over sixty years.
“We recognize that consumer taste continue to evolve”, said Shoemaker. “We grow some organic product, we grow some organic grape tomatoes, but we believe the best way to continue to decrease our inputs- essentially pesticides and other fertilizers is to breed better plants.”
For now, organic and specialty imports will continue to chip away at Florida’s share of the market. But depending on how trade rules are changed, those tomatoes coming from across the border may become more expensive.