—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 8, 1973
14
Tomatoes - Gains
Never underestimate the
power of a tomato.
Not only has it been the best
selling of all processed fruits and
vegetables over the years, but it’s
becoming more so, riding on the
crest of demand for quick foods
that make abundant use of such
items as catsup, tomato sauce, or
paste.
Since the late 1940’5, growers
have had to more than double
production to meet the demand
for processing tomatoes. Imports
of processed tomatoes are way
up, particularly from Italy,
Spain, and Portugal. And a
switch to more concentrated
tomato products has played a big
role in California’s taking over as
the Nation’s No. 1 producer and
processor of canned tomato
products.
The average American now
consumes about 20 pounds of
processed tomatoes a year in
such forms as juice, canned
tomatoes, paste, puree, and
sauce. He eats, by contrast, 12
pounds of fresh tomatoes.
Close to four-fifths of the
processed crop comes from
California. Of the other two
major processing centers, the
Midwest accounts for 14 percent
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New Holland 354-4191
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The Buck
of the processed crop, and the
East, 6 percent.
Just about all of California’s
rapid growth in the past 20 years
has come at the expense of the
East. From 1948-50 to 1970-72, the
East had a 42-percent drop in
harvested tonnage. California’s
production went up four times to
more than 4 million tons. Mid
west tonnage dimed 50 percent.
Climate control. California
owes much of its success to a
climate that’s paved the way for
mechanical harvesting. Because
of the dryness in producing
areas, crops are irrigated and
soil conditions can usually be
controlled to just about optimal
levels for harvesting As a result,
high-yielding varieties that
respond to once-over mechanical
harvesting have been developed
that take full advantage of these
conditions.
California thus has sub
stantially higher yields and lower
production costs than other parts
of the country. And with lower
raw product costs for tomato
canners, the processing industry
has flourished.
Today, just about all of
California’s tomatoes grown for
processing are under irrigation
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and mechanically harvested. The
Midwest and the East, on the
other hand, are more dependent
on hand harvesting due to wet
field conditions. Last year, about
30 percent of the Midwest’s crop
was machine harvested, and the
relatively few mechanical
harvesters in the East were
frequently slowed or delayed by
wet fields.
To each his own. Each of these
three major processing regions
has its specialties.
California is in a better position
to produce high-concentrated
tomato products because of its
advantage in lower raw product
costs. Nearly 60 percent of its
processing crop goes into such
products as sauce, puree, and
paste, which take up to
pounds of farm weight to make a
pound of finished product.
Well over 90 percent of the
Nation’s tomato paste and
tomato sauce comes from
California.
Concentrate on low
concentrates. The East and
Midwest put close to half their
production in low-concentrated
tomato juice and canned
tomatoes. These products take
about 1.5 pounds of farm weight
tomatoes to make a pound of
finished product. High
concentrated products account
for less than 10 percent of their
production.
In the East, most of the plants
(Continued On Page 19)
UtoHN DEERE J
in the West,
Losses in East
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