Tomatoes are a delicious fruit that provide tons of uses.
You can eat them as they are or cut them up into a salad.
You can also crush them and make a delicious sauce for your favorite pasta dish.
Beloved as tomatoes are, shopping for them has become quite the ordeal.
You may have noticed that the price of tomatoes has steadily become more expensive.
Why is that exactly?
Why Are Tomatoes So Expensive? (10 Reasons)
On average, you can expect to pay between $1 and $9 for a pound of tomatoes.
Certain factors like climate problems, farming issues, and high demand have made tomato prices soar.
Let’s look at these factors in more detail.
1. Drought Problems
One of the more serious problems affecting tomatoes is drought.
While China is the leading producer of tomatoes, the United States isn’t far behind.
There are only two states that produce the most tomatoes: California and Florida.
The problem with these two states is that they have recently had problems related to the weather and climate.
California, in particular, experienced a drought that impacted the growth of tomatoes.
Without enough water, tomatoes are unable to grow.
They need water to stay alive.
Tomatoes, in particular, are a bit more difficult to grow than other crops as well.
Their needs are a bit more complex.
Even the slightest variation can impact how well they grow.
Drought doesn’t just impact the current harvest either.
It can also make it so farmers can’t plant tomato seeds for next year either.
Without enough water in the soil, tomato seeds won’t ever sprout.
They’ll simply die or the birds will eat them.
This makes tomatoes expensive because it means there’s less supply hitting store shelves.
When a shortage happens, prices tend to increase.
Tomatoes are expensive because of the drought California experienced.
2. Fertilizer Costs
Fertilizer costs are also making tomatoes more expensive.
There’s an abundance of reasons why fertilizer costs have been high.
One of the most pressing is the situation in China.
China typically produces a lot of ammonia as a by-product of coal mining.
However, the country has started to shut down coal mines in an effort to turn to green technology.
This means that there is less ammonia coming to factories.
It also means that some ammonia plants had to shut down.
COVID-19 also impacted ammonia plants.
Whenever the virus emerged in one of the factories, it had to shut down to stop the spread.
This also impacted the supply of ammonia.
Without ammonia, fertilizer companies cannot make their traditional fertilizer formulas.
As a result, there’s a scarce supply of fertilizer available.
With less fertilizer on the market, farmers have to spend more money to acquire the fertilizer they need.
Fertilizer is essential to farms since it helps their crops grow fast and large.
Without it, their yields may not be as good.
High costs of fertilizer drive up the costs of farming.
To offset their costs, farmers have to sell tomatoes at higher prices.
Tomatoes are expensive because of high fertilizer costs.
3. High Demand
Tomatoes are also in high demand.
The thing about tomatoes is that you can use them in different ways.
Some people eat tomatoes exactly as they are.
They’ll bite into them like an apple or chop them up and put them in a salad.
Other tomatoes go to factories where they’ll turn into tomato sauce or tomato paste.
People who cook pasta will find tomato sauce essential.
Tomatoes are also essential for pizza sauce.
All the pizza chains in the world invest in tomatoes to be able to make their pizza sauces.
Tomatoes also become ketchup.
Restaurants and grocery stores need ketchup to either use in their dishes or sell to customers.
Clearly, tomatoes have a lot of uses.
Because of that, there is a lot of demand for tomatoes from different industries.
Whenever a shortage occurs, it means all those industries are working against each other to try to get their hands on the products that they need.
With high demand and low supply, the price of tomatoes increases.
Tomatoes are expensive because they’re in such high demand.
4. Healthy Fruit
Tomatoes often become confused with vegetables.
However, tomatoes are a fruit.
They’re also a very healthy fruit.
One of the reasons tomatoes are so prized is that they contain antioxidants.
Antioxidants are crucial to include in your diet.
They can help remove free radicals in your body which can damage your body and can sometimes lead to cancer.
Tomatoes are also known for reducing your chances of developing heart disease.
Like many other types of fruit, tomatoes also have several vitamins and nutrients in them.
In particular, they have a good dose of Vitamin A, Vitamin K, potassium, and folate.
Because they’re so healthy, it only adds to the amount of demand that people have for tomatoes.
They want to enjoy the health benefits that tomatoes offer.
In addition, because it’s healthy, it usually means that tomatoes and tomato products tend to have slightly higher prices.
Healthier products tend to be more expensive than unhealthy products.
As such, you can expect to pay higher prices for tomatoes.
Tomatoes are expensive because they’re healthy.
5. Labor Shortages
Another problem impacting the supply of tomatoes is labor shortages.
Tomatoes require some level of labor in their harvesting.
While machines typically pick the tomatoes, they still require people to operate those machines.
The problem with that is that there are fewer people interested in working on farms.
A lack of pay is one of the problems.
Wages aren’t high enough to attract workers to the fields.
Cutdowns on immigration have also impacted the immigrant supply of workers that farmers often rely on for cheaper labor.
Without enough workers, it means fewer tomatoes make it off the field in time for processing.
That creates scarcity as well.
With fewer tomatoes leaving the farms, there are fewer tomatoes hitting grocery shelves.
That decreases the supply and makes tomatoes expensive.
Tomatoes are expensive because of labor shortages.
6. Disease
Disease is another problem impacting tomatoes.
Tomatoes are subject to a lot of rot-related diseases.
Some of these diseases can be a result of climate problems.
For example, if there’s too much rain in an area, then it can increase the chances of rot forming on the tomatoes.
Disease makes tomatoes expensive because it means farmers lose tomatoes to the disease.
If the disease is infectious, a farmer might lose a good portion of their field to it before they can do anything.
That creates scarcity.
Other farmers might spend a good amount of money to protect their tomatoes from disease.
Since that increases their costs, the farmer will have to sell their tomatoes at higher prices to make up for the cost.
As a result, the consumer will face higher tomato prices.
Tomatoes are expensive because they’re subject to a variety of diseases.
7. Seasonal
Tomatoes are also seasonal.
They only grow in certain temperatures and climates.
When the environment changes, tomatoes’ cannot grow.
This is why tomatoes aren’t that common in states that experience cold winters.
The temperatures become too cold for the tomatoes to flourish.
This also means that tomatoes are more expensive during certain times of the year.
The United States produces its own tomatoes.
However,’ they can only produce those tomatoes during a certain part of the year.
You may find that tomatoes, and tomato products, are usually cheaper during that part of the year.
Once the harvest season is over, however, and winter arrives, the price of tomatoes increases.
That’s because the United States has to import tomatoes from countries that aren’t experiencing winter during that time.
’Imported tomatoes tend to be more expensive because of fees and taxes.
To cover these costs, imported tomatoes are then sold at a higher price.
Tomatoes are expensive when they’re not in season.
8. Extreme Temperature Changes
Besides drought and disease, tomatoes are also under attack from extreme temperature changes.
Certain parts of the United States have been experiencing sudden temperature changes that aren’t normal.
It may be warm and pleasant one day, then suddenly cold the next.
It’s the sudden cold that is impacting tomatoes.
Tomatoes prefer a warm environment in which to grow.
When the temperature drops too much, tomatoes run the risk of dying or becoming ill.
When it comes to farming tomatoes, it means that farmers might miss their opportunity to harvest all their tomatoes.
A sudden blast of cold air could kill some portions of their fields before they have a chance to harvest them.
As such, they might end up with a shortage.
The problem with sudden temperature changes is that they’re almost impossible to predict.
Farmers have become used to a reliable farming calendar.
With climate change impacting that calendar, they’re not always prepared or sure of when to harvest and when to wait to let their tomatoes grow further.
Tomatoes are expensive because extreme temperature changes are exacerbating the shortage.
9. High Fuel Costs
Fuel costs are also impacting the price of tomatoes.
On the one hand, farmers have to pay high fuel prices to keep their tractors fueled up.
Since they sometimes have large fields to take care of, they can burn fuel relatively quickly.
When fuel prices are high, they’re spending a lot of money just to keep their tractors working.
That impacts their cost of farming, so they need to charge higher prices for their tomatoes.
There are also transport costs to consider.
Once the tomatoes are ready to head to grocery stores or processing factories, they need trucks.
Trucks rely on fuel, too.
When fuel prices are high, it costs more money to move crates of tomatoes from one area to the next.
As a result, both farmers and the processing factories end up having higher costs.
To offset their costs, they have to sell their products at higher prices.
Fuel costs can also impact energy costs.
If manufacturing or living has a higher cost, tomatoes will be more expensive.
Tomatoes are expensive because of high fuel costs.
10. Fewer Farmers Planting Tomatoes
A final reason tomatoes are expensive is that there are fewer farmers planting tomatoes.
Tomatoes don’t always fetch high prices for farmers.
Due to the complexity and problems associated with farming tomatoes, some farmers have simply given up on the crop.
They’ve turned to easier plants that provide higher earnings instead.
This means that there are fewer tomatoes on the market each year.
With scarcity increasing and demand still high, it makes the price of tomatoes increase.
To encourage more farmers to plant tomatoes, the price of tomatoes may increase further.
Tomatoes are expensive because there are fewer farmers planting tomatoes.
Conclusion
Tomatoes are a delicious fruit that provides quite a few health benefits.
However, because of the wide use of tomatoes and the costs associated with growing them, the fruit can be quite expensive to buy.
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