<p><strong>Pompano Beach, FL</strong><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Southern Specialties reflects on its most recent heirloom tomato season and discusses the variations in price and supply between the 2011-2012 and 2010-2011 seasons. Heirloom tomato harvest ran from mid-November through the beginning of May, and the company experienced high weekly volumes in both of its Mexico and Florida growing areas.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">The company typically experiences a freeze during the last week of December and first two weeks of January, but inclement weather this season had little to no effect on supply. Alejandra Pineda, Procurement Manager for tomatoes at Southern Specialties, explains that the 2010-2011 season suffered due to the abundance of heirlooms in the market crossing through Nogales from California, but that a similar problem did not occur this season.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Last year’s harvest saw many Mexican growers take a loss at the field level due to a drop in market prices during the months of January through February. Ms. Pineda compares tomato prices this season to prices last season, stating that, “Prices this season were in the mid to high teens, and during mid January and February the price dropped to single digits. During season 2010-2011, both Florida and Mexico went through a freeze late December and first two weeks of January, resulting in a price range of $25 - $30 last season. During the month of February last season, the market jumped to low $30’s.”<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Southern Specialties continued to focus its efforts this season on providing top quality, fresh, and nutritious specialty tomatoes to foodservice and retail customers, and is pleased with its 2011-2012 heirloom tomato harvest.</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://southernspecialties.com/"target="_new"> Southern Specialties </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
