Tomato Update


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Wed. June 20th, 2012

Todd Linsky, VP of Organic Sales, Cal-Organic<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">For Cal-Organic, TOV's are our primary crop and we have some beefsteak tomatoes as well. During the Summer months we have some orange and yellow tomatoes on the vine. Peak season right now for greenhouse depends on your light source so this would be considered the peak time of the year because you have the most amount of daylight, causing the plants to grow at their fastest pace. Between now and September is primarily your peak season. Fortunately with a greenhouse, you can grow year round which means that we have fresh organically grown tomatoes in the middle of December and January when it is cold everywhere. Market has a tendency to be a little soft this time of year because of the supply that is out there. For us, based on us and what we are doing, we having a really high end product and quality always has a market and that is what the backbone of our program is about. We don't run into some of those road blocks like other people have. We have really really nice tomatoes. <hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Martin Mazzanti, Founder and Chairman, The Produce Exchange<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">We are harvesting right now in La Piedad, Michoacán, Mexico. We are in production year round. These are all hot house grown. There is no peak season. Basically, we harvest one cluster a week. We harvest one plant for 15 to 18 weeks. We plant so that we are always harvesting and it gives us very consistent steady production throughout the year.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Tom Deardorff, President, Deardorff Family Farms<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">We start harvesting around the 15th of July. We will start with Roma tomatoes, Vine Ripe Round tomatoes and organics in both of those as well. The market has been tough throughout the Winter months coming into Spring it has been pretty week for market price. We are hoping things will start to stabilize as things transition from Mexico back into the U.S. and California in particular that the market will correct itself and get back to normal. The big thing is to think about U.S. grown field tomatoes. Peak of the season is in the Summer months and into the Fall as far as the availability goes and we are excited about that and the organics program and that we have domestic supplies of really good tomatoes.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Jeff Dolan, Field Operations Manager, DiMare Co<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Our peak season is really later on in the Fall. Right now we are at a steady place in the time frame. In the Fall is when we really peak in production. We start down in the desert in mid-May and have finished up the desert deal which now brings us to the San Joaquin Valley. The heat we had here over the weekend took its toll, but other than that we have great tomatoes coming out of California and everyone is getting going in their production for the Summertime and we are looking forward to a great crop of good tasting flavorful tomatoes.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">