By Clint Thompson
The U.S.-Mexico Tomato Suspension Agreement’s official termination in mid-July has already impacted tomato prices and the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Danny Munch, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), discussed the Consumer Price Index and its impact during an interview with AgNet Media at last month’s Citrus & Specialty Crop Expo in Tampa, Florida. He believes that tomato prices have increased.
“Just looking at the CPI data, that’s what we’re seeing reflected is higher vegetable prices. We don’t know if all of that is going back to the producer. Some of that might just be sucked up in the marketplace through retailers,” Munch said. “That number is up, and tomatoes are a large piece of that vegetable CPI number.”
The controversial agreement failed to stop Mexican tomato companies from dumping their product into the U.S. market, negatively impacting prices U.S. tomato prices for years. Its termination led the Trump administration to impose a 17% antidumping duty on more than $1 billion of tomato imports from Mexico.
“One of the interesting things that I’ve gotten a few media questions about is the CPI, Consumer Price Index for vegetables. It has gone up over the past month. One of the biggest chunks of that is tomato prices,” Munch said. “Because of that agreement, now with 17% on tomatoes coming in from Mexico, now you’ve boosted up prices a bit for some of our U.S. producers.”