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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Tomato growers: Salmonella scare damages industry
  • Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:47:36 -0600




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.





  • [Livingontheland] Tomato growers: Salmonella scare damages industry, Tradingpost, 07/20/2008

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