Immokalee, Fla. – Shoppers can expect to pay much more for tomatoes and peppers, especially in grocery stores along the East Coast, for the next two months because Hurricane Wilma flooded fields and tore through crops in Florida.
Florida growers who choose to replant destroyed crops probably won’t be able to bring their produce to market for another two months. This will cause a temporary shortage of tomatoes and peppers because the state provides more than half of the nation’s fresh vegetables between the months of November and February, industry officials said Wednesday.
Only California annually produces more fresh vegetables than Florida.
“As the supermarkets come to expect those tomatoes and don’t get them, those prices are going to rise,” said Ray Gilmer, a spokesman for the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association.
After last year’s hurricanes ruined some Florida vegetable crops, the price of tomatoes went from $1.50 to $2 a pound to as much as $4 to $5 a pound. But the price didn’t go back down right away, even after the Florida crop returned to normal in early January, causing a small drop in consumer demand for tomatoes.
“Prices go up quickly but drop slowly,” Gilmer said.
Consumers may not see prices rise as dramatically as last year, however, because this year’s California tomato-growing season has lasted longer than last season, and Mexican tomatoes should begin flowing into the United States in December, said Reggie Brown, manager of the Florida Tomato Committee, which markets Florida’s tomatoes.
Brown said it was too early to guess how much prices would increase.
“The situation doesn’t appear to be as bleak as last year,” Brown said.
Wilma peeled off the corrugated steel roofs of vegetable packing houses and flooded tomato and pepper fields. Winds ripped off the plastic coverings of greenhouses, exposing delicate baby tomato and pepper plants to the burning rays of Florida sunshine after the storm.
Last year, Charley and three other hurricanes caused $2 billion to $3 billion in damage to crops and infrastructure. Agriculture officials said that it’s too early to assess the destruction, but that it would likely be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
