The price of tomatoes around the world has skyrocketed over the last two years and this steep increase is expected to continue till the end of this year 2022 according to the forecasts.
This situation is fueled by several factors including the Covid pandemic which slowed down the world’s production, uncertain weather conditions, water supply shortages due to droughts, Russia-Ukraine war, spiking prices of fertilizers, and so much more.
It is estimated that, tomato prices have increased close to a whopping 142% around the world according to reports. This has driven the cost of industrial processing to about 15% more than in 2021 and 21% more than in 2019.
At the recent 14th World Processing Tomato Congress held online internationally, it was discussed that the demand for tomatoes as raw material for the processing industry is under immense competition from direct consumers.
Currently, raw tomato prices for processing in Europe and the US are estimated around EUR 104 and USD 120 per metric ton respectively, which is way above the previous benchmark of approximately USD 78 per metric ton.
Tomato farmers around the world are re-calibrating, re-training and being encouraged to increase their production capacities while practicing soil balance, soil maintenance and resilient, sustainable farming. Repairing our fractured supply chains and striving towards "supply meeting demand" will go a long way to re-balance prices in the upcoming months