Disaster for Manatee County Tomato Growers (Bradenton, Palmetto: crime, houses, buying)

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PAUL VIDELA
Approximately 60 truckloads of tomatoes are waylaid in cold-storage warehouses at West Coast Tomato in Palmetto Monday due to a dropoff in orders from tomato retailers. The 54-degree temperatures will delay the ripening process for these boxed tomatoes, but out in the fields tomatoes which have yet to be picked have a much shorter time window before they become over-ripe and unsalable.By JESSICA KLIPA and MAURA POSSLEY
Herald staff writers


MANATEE --Growers here are bracing for millions of dollars in losses as tomatoes nationwide under a federal advisory for salmonella.

"We're losing tomatoes right now and if they don't act quickly, we're going to lose them all," said Edward Angrisani, a partner at Palmetto's Taylor & Fulton.

The 35 truckloads of the fruit shipped from the company's packing house every day were brought to a halt. About 190,000 boxes of tomatoes are stacked and ready to be shipped, and an additional 300,000 boxes are in the fields unpicked, said Angrisani, who estimated the loss at $6 million.

That's not counting the impact of about the 800 to 900 people who haven't worked on the farm since Saturday.

Manatee County is Florida's leading producer of tomatoes.

The Food and Drug Administration warns consumers of raw red Romas, raw red plums and raw red round tomatoes or food that contains them, unless the fruit came from Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Belgium, Canada, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Israel, the Netherlands or Puerto Rico.

Consumers unsure of where the tomatoes in their stores originate from should contact their market, according to the FDA.

Still edible are cherry and grape tomatoes and tomatoes with the vine still attached.

There have been 145 cases of salmonellosis reported since mid-April associated with outbreaks reported in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, according to the FDA.

Florida is waiting on clearance from the agency to deem its tomatoes safe.

Some farmworkers have been left in lurch because of the recall, said Reggie Brown, Florida Tomato Growers Exchange executive director. They are waiting to see how long it lasts. They may just travel north for the start of a new tomato crop, to places like Georgia and South Carolina, where the fruit is safe to eat, Brown said.

He estimated a $40 million loss to growers in Ruskin and Palmetto.

"Whether it will all be impacted or not remains to be seen," Brown said. "The FDA's at the steering wheel of this deal."

Over the weekend and Monday morning, tomatoes were yanked from shelves at local Publix, Sweetbay and Winn-Dixie stores. Likewise, sandwich shops and restaurants stopped serving salsas, sliced tomatoes and other items, including Subway, Taco Bell, McDonald's and Chipotle.

Stores are tracking what tomatoes are grown where and in what stores they end up. They maintain the removal of the tomatoes is solely a precaution until the FDA says the fruit is edible.

At least one grocer - Publix - is offering customers refunds for the recalled tomatoes, said Shannon Patten, its spokeswoman.

The best prevention against the illness is cooking the fruit, bringing tomatoes to a full boil, said Tom Larkin, Manatee Health Department environmental manager.

He advised consumers to ask their grocer, farmer's market or roadside stand where the tomatoes were grown, a question most can answer.


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Recent Comments

These guys must be pooping their pants. They couldn't sell their...
This certainly doesn't help the local economy the Tomato producers...
dont worry though the pickers get the penny per pound bonus. just...
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