Price Of A Roma On The Rise Due To Tomato Shortage
Have you noticed something missing from your burger or salad lately? Maybe the tomato on top? That's because the U.S. is seeing a shortage of the popular fruit. A rough winter took it's toll on the tomato supply. This shortage has local restaurants being more resourceful, and grocers are trying not to pass the price increase onto their customers. Rocky Cascio says tomatoes are on 90 percent of the dishes served at his Bossier City Italian bistro. Last week he noticed nearly a 50 percent hike in fees for the popular food topping. Now Cascio is looking for new ways to slice them."What do you do? You see an employee cutting them by hand, and you say stop! Let's put them on the slicer so we can get the maximum from them," Said Cascio.At Cotten's Grocery in Shreveport tomato shipments have been downsized. Customers have seen the price of a Roma double, and the owner says they no longer make a profit on them."We sell it almost at cost right now even a notch below cost because we cannot charge $3 per pound on tomatoes," said store owner Akram Salamah. "We may as well just stop selling it because nobody will pay $3."Florida, which is the nation's biggest producer of tomatoes, has experienced a 60 to 70 percent decline in its tomato production.
ABT Price at posting:
88.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
