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Last updated July 19, 2008 8:44 a.m. PT
Tomato growers: Salmonella scare damages industry
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1310ap_tomato_growers.html

By STEVE SZKOTAK
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
        photo
        Produce manager Richard Yantis sorts through Roma tomatoes at 
Compton's market in Sacramento, Calif., Friday, July 18, 2008. In Virginia is 
there is a bumper crop of tomatoes, but there is a lingering consumer concern 
about the safety of tomatoes.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

RICHMOND, Va. -- The 6,000 acres of tomatoes grown on Virginia's sea-swept 
Eastern Shore were never implicated in the national salmonella outbreak - 
they were still on the vine weeks after people starting getting sick.

Still, that hasn't made much difference to tomato broker Batista Madonia III, 
who has seen sales and prices plummet in the wake of a salmonella outbreak 
that sickened people in 42 states and left the nation's tomato industry 
feeling woozy as well.

Since the government announced it was investigating whether tomatoes caused 
the outbreak that began in April, the nation's tomato industry estimates it 
has lost more than $100 million. Health investigators have not able to find 
tomatoes that contained the salmonella strain that sickened 1,220 people, and 
the government on Thursday lifted its salmonella warning involving tomatoes.

The move hasn't brightened the outlook of the $1.3 billion industry, and the 
stigma and uncertainty of the salmonella's origin are likely to add to its 
losses.

"The damage has been done. I don't think we'll ever get over it," said 
Madonia, sales manager for East Coast Brokers & Packers, which grows 4,000 
acres on the Eastern Shore.

At height of summer, when tomatoes are a staple of the picnic season, growers 
have seen their plump red produce pulled from fast-food menus and passed over 
by shoppers.

"Summer is our biggest window of opportunity. If we miss this season, we 
can't get it back," said Tom Deardorff, a farmer in California, which grows 
the most tomatoes in the U.S. "It's hard to force people to eat tomatoes at 
Christmastime."

Deardorff, a Ventura County farmer who grows 600 acres of beefsteak and Roma 
tomatoes, worries it could take a year or more for consumers to regain their 
appetite for tomatoes.

An Associated Press-Ipsos poll conducted July 10-14 found that while three in 
four people remain confident about the overall safety of food, 46 percent 
said they were worried they might get sick from eating tainted products.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials believe that consumers may now 
enjoy all types of fresh tomatoes available without worrying about salmonella 
Saintpaul, the outbreak strain.

The elderly and people with weak immune systems - those most vulnerable to 
food-borne illnesses - should avoid fresh jalapenos and serranos, and any 
dishes that may contain them such as fresh salsa, federal health officials 
have advised.

Growers in Florida and Georgia, the No. 2 and 3 tomato-producing states, 
respectively, agreed the damage may be too much to overcome. The harvest is 
winding down or has ended in those states, and growers are deciding how many 
acres to devote to tomatoes during the fall.

"We're glad for Virginia, for North Carolina growers," said Charles Hall of 
the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers' Association. "But it's not going to 
help Georgia growers."

For states where tomatoes will be harvested in the weeks to come, the 
challenge will be overcoming consumer suspicion of the industry.

Kathy Means, spokeswoman for the Produce Marketing Association, said the 
industry will have to win back consumer confidence through lower pricing and 
pitching the health benefits of fresh tomatoes.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has worked to 
spread the news that the state-grown tomatoes are safe, even offering 
"Virginia Grown" labels to producers.

"I think people may still be a little leery about tomatoes of unknown origin, 
but the overwhelming reaction I've heard or heard about from the public is 
that they think Va. tomatoes are safe and they are enjoying them fully," the 
department's spokeswoman, Elaine Lidholm, said in an e-mail.

Madonia said it took too long for the government to rule out tomatoes in the 
salmonella outbreak.

"Every lot of tomatoes we pack we test for salmonella and e-coli," Madonia 
said. "God knows what I spend on rubber gloves and hairnets."

California broker Sam Carswell, who has been in the tomato business for 50 
years, said he's lost 75 to 80 percent of his sales this season.

"From the beginning I had my suspicions it wasn't tomatoes because the only 
time they're touched is when they're picked and packed," said Carswell, who 
is shipping tomatoes for the Central California Tomato Growers Cooperative. 
"The government needs to put out the information as best they can. They put 
out the bad information quite a bit, but they just need to make sure 
everybody knows tomatoes are safe."

A fourth generation tomato grower in Florida said farm workers were already 
preparing 2,500 acres for the August planting.

"You deal with the elements, you deal with the cards your dealt, and you just 
move on," said Jim Granger, owner of Taylor and Fulton in Palmetto, Fla., on 
the central-Gulf Coast of the state.