Higher prices for ketchup and spaghetti sauce? California's drought is hurting tomato farmers - San Francisco Chronicle

No matter if you’re whipping up a cacciatore, amatriciana or a homemade pizza, you’re going to need one thing: tomatoes.

But while most of the tomatoes consumed in the U.S. — fresh, canned, and otherwise — come from California, factors like the ongoing drought, rising fuel prices, and a changing climate are making the fruit harder and more expensive to grow. And that’s prompting some California farmers to consider raising other, hardier crops that require less irrigation.

“On our end the biggest issue we have is the water situation,” said Bruce Rominger, who along with his brother Rick runs Rominger Brothers Farms in Winters, Calif. about a half hour drive west of Davis. Rominger produces bulk tomatoes to be mechanically picked, canned, and turned into products like paste and ketchup, a separate market from whole, fresh tomatoes, which are usually hand-picked.

Rominger said his location in Yolo County is usually water-rich, unlike where many tomatoes are grown in California further south along the I-5 corridor. But the drought has meant his and other farms were allocated no water this year from Clear Lake and Indian Valley Reservoir in Lake County.

Bruce Rominger, owner of Rominger Brothers Farms, shows cover crops that he just planted consisting of peas, beans, oats and vetch on Oct. 21, 2022 in Winters, Calif. California-grown tomatoes that supply most of the U.S. are becoming increasingly expensive and difficult to grow because of a changing climate and economic factors.

Andri Tambunan, Freelance / Special to The Chronicle

Instead he’s had to rely on pumping groundwater, an expensive, electricity-intensive process that isn’t a viable long-term solution, either economically or environmentally.

Drought Impacts

“I typically plant around 800 acres of tomatoes a year,” on the smaller end of an average grower, Rominger said. He won’t be able to plant that next year “unless we get significant rainfall” since he can’t rely on irrigation, Rominger added. About a third of his land was fallow this past season because of water scarcity.

On Rominger’s land and elsewhere in the state, drought has already taken a punishing toll on other crops as well. More than half of California’s rice fields have been left barren this season for want of water.

But it isn’t just the drought that’s hurting producers like Rominger and raising the price of tomatoes.

“Our hotter spells are hotter and they go for longer durations,” said Mike Montna, president and CEO of the California Tomato Growers Association. “It’s having an impact on the yields that growers can get,” he added.

Besides the heat there are also unusual cold snaps to contend with. Rominger said he lost 55 acres to frost in April, something that’s never happened to him in his decades of farming. Unseasonable September rains then cut into more than 100 acres of his crop.

A tractor tills the fields after tomato harvest at Rominger Brothers Farm on Oct. 21, 2022 in Winters, Calif. Water scarcity and extreme weather mean farmers plant fewer acres and enjoy lower output from the fields that do produce.

Andri Tambunan, Freelance / Special to The Chronicle

Water scarcity and extreme weather mean farmers plant fewer acres and enjoy lower output from the fields that do produce. And that, of course, raises prices.

Montna pointed to January figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimating California’s fields would produce about 12 million tons this year of tomatoes grown for processing. That number was revised down to 11.7 million in May, and then again to 10.5 million tons in August, Montna said.

Farmers like Rominger have been getting higher purchase prices from companies that process and can their tomatoes, as big buyers like Campbell Soup, Conagra, and Del Monte Foods upped their rates this year.

“In 2021 the price was $84.50 a ton,” Montna said “This year it was $105 per ton” for the season that runs from July into October.

But much of that revenue boost is being eaten up by rising inflation and stubbornly high fuel costs, so farmers aren’t necessarily reaping more profits. Rominger’s farm mostly broke even on the tomatoes it produced during the 2021 and 2022 seasons, he said, as higher sale prices helped compensate for his smaller yield.

Bruce Rominger says the Rominger Brothers Farms mostly broke even on the tomatoes it produced during the 2021 and 2022 seasons as higher sale prices helped compensate for his smaller yield.

Andri Tambunan, Freelance / Special to The Chronicle

“We feel the inflation like everybody else,” he said. Prices for everything from tractor parts to fuel have shot up, while fertilizer has roughly doubled in cost, Rominger said. Federal Reserve figures confirm that fertilizer prices have risen more than 100% in the past 24 months.

“When costs go up and yields go down, then that’s another whammy on your bottom line,” he said.

Labor has also gotten more expensive.

Rominger said he pays most of his workers above minimum wage, primarily to operate machinery, since much of his tomato harvesting is mechanized. But planting can be manual-labor-intensive, and he opted to buy a $300,000 automated transplanter to ultimately save on costs.

The United Farm Workers Madera office could not be reached for comment about labor conditions and pay in California tomato fields.

Many of the problems facing tomato growers aren’t unique to their crop. But since tomatoes are a perishable product that have to be picked quickly at peak ripeness and processed soon thereafter, the farmers are more vulnerable to changing conditions.

Rominger said he will have to make hard choices in the future about whether to favor his other crops, which include sunflowers, wheat, corn and nuts, if these patterns hold.

Rominger said he will have to make hard choices in the future about whether to favor his other crops, which include sunflowers, wheat, corn and nuts.

Andri Tambunan, Freelance / Special to The Chronicle

“The cropping patterns will change over time if the weather changes,” he said, although it is “hard to make an abrupt decision when you have a lot of money invested in equipment,” not to mention the nearby canning infrastructure.

All of this hasn’t led to major price spikes for consumers yet. But overall consumer prices for processed fruits and vegetables, such as canned tomatoes, are expected to rise by around 10% to 11% this year compared to last according to the USDA, as growers and processors deal with higher costs.

Sharon Ardiana, owner of Gialina restaurant in San Francisco’s Glen Park neighborhood, said in a message that the Bianco DiNapoli brand of California grown canned tomatoes she uses have so far risen only slightly in price.

Fresh tomatoes have gone up by about $5 per case, she said, but that has become a normal year-over-year change.

“I get them straight from the farm” in Watsonville, Ardiana said of the fresh tomatoes. “But prices for everything have definitely increased!”

Chase DiFeliciantonio is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice

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Higher prices for ketchup and spaghetti sauce? California's drought is hurting tomato farmers - San Francisco Chronicle
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