Why Tomatoes Are the Most Expensive They've Been in Four Decades
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Why are tomato prices at a record high?
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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Traci Alloway.
And I'm Joe Wiesenthal.
Joe, I know you love tomatoes.
I love tomatoes. Oh my God. I love tomatoes. I love tomatoes so much.
This is the episode. This is Joe talking about how he loves tomatoes.
Well, there's a funny one because like this is a you episode. You know, you're like, oh, let's do a tomato episode. Mm-hmm. which I'm glad you did because I love tomatoes so much. But you're going to make it your episode, aren't you? But I don't know anything about tomatoes.
How do trade policies affect tomato prices?
I just love eating them. When I was a kid, growing up in Exurban, Illinois, I had terrible tomatoes growing up, so I hated tomatoes. What, from the supermarket? From the grocery store. So I thought tomatoes were the worst vegetable on the planet. Well, they're not.
Are you going to correct yourself and say they're not a vegetable?
They're a fruit. You know, so I'm just going to go on because I'm going to take this episode over. But like, you know, I've once heard someone say that like knowledge is knowing that tomato is a vegetable and wisdom is knowing not to put tomato in a fruit salad. But I've like come to like, like tomatoes are so delicious. There are some varietals that I absolutely would put in a fruit salad.
No, no, I would. No, this is wrong.
And so these tomatoes that we, no, no, no. Like when you, have you tried one of the tomatoes? I have. I still would not put it in a fruit salad. I absolutely would. I love tomatoes. Anyway, sorry.
So we got to talk about tomatoes. Perhaps not in the way you have been so far, but.
We'll spend one minute talking about how tomato prices are really high. Yes. And then the other 45 minutes, we're going to talk about how delicious tomatoes are. That's right.
Okay. So the genesis of this entire episode is that, as you will have heard, tomato prices are really high right now. So I think we're looking at something like a 40% increase year over year.
What role does weather play in tomato supply?
Yes.
And I just saw some new data that's out this morning. So there are a lot of tomato headlines floating around saying that tomato prices are at a record $2.69 a pound. So tomatoes are getting kind of expensive, which is bad news for you.
It's really bad news for me because I'm addicted to them. I am price insensitive. So it doesn't matter how high the price of tomatoes get, it will not affect my volume at all. So that's just straight money out of my pocket.
It is not bad news for me because I just installed five raised beds, big raised beds, dedicated all to tomatoes. And I just planted them out yesterday. And I'm very excited. You should be excited, too, because you know you'll get some.
Tracy always brings me tomatoes at some point in the summer and they're always delicious.
I've got a really big selection this year. Cherokee, Brandywine, all the classics and some new things. Fourth of July, I've never tried before. I don't mean to get all like Bubba Gump and just start listing tomato varieties here, but tomatoes are on my mind and I think they're on a lot of other people's minds just by nature of the price increase.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why are tomato prices at a record high?
0:00–1:49
2
How do trade policies affect tomato prices?
1:49–2:59
3
What role does weather play in tomato supply?
2:59–4:30
4
How do logistics impact tomato pricing?
4:30–6:27
5
What are the economic factors behind rising produce prices?
6:27–8:49
6
How do restaurants manage fluctuating ingredient costs?
8:49–10:44
7
What are the latest trends in tomato varieties?
10:44–12:43
8
How do consumer preferences shape the tomato market?
12:43–58:18
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from Odd Lots
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