Headline from:
AFP Sun, 06 Feb 2005
Tomato crisis has Florida consumers seeing red
"What began as a tomato scarcity after four hurricanes lashed Florida has become a glut"
Originally, the hurricanes caused a decrease in supply; a shift of the entire supply curve to the left.
" 'The pre-crisis tomato sold for 1.49 per pound'...By early January, in cities like Baltimore, Maryland, near Washington, a pound of tomatoes was priced at 2.99 dollars and in New York, 3.49."
This is what economic theory would predict.
But apparently there is a wide gulf between the retail price which the consumer pays and the wholesale price that the farmer receives. (Perhaps we should reread The Pearl by John Steinbeck.) And the production of tomatoes has quickly recovered.
" 'Many growers have cut their losses by letting their tomatoes rot, rather than hire workers to pick tomatoes they may not be able to sell.' "
"Last week, growers gave away nearly a million pounds (half a million kilos) to soup kitchens."
"Millions of Florida tomatoes rot on the vine as growers cannot pick them, grocers ask princely prices, restaurants ration them and consumers refuse to buy them."
The Florida Association of Fruits and Vegetables spokesman Ray Gilmer
