Farms: tomato sales plummeting

As losses across the supply chain top US$100 million, industry leaders are calling for a congressional investigation into the government's handling of the outbreak, the source of which hasn't been determined.

McDonald's Corp., Wendy's International Inc. and Yum Brands Inc. resumed offering some tomatoes on their menus in the last few weeks.

But now, during one of the biggest barbecue weekends of the year, tomato farmers say their summer season has already withered despite the government's recent announcement that some other type of fresh produce might have caused the salmonella outbreak, which has sickened 922 people.

"Now the government has a doubt as to whether it was tomatoes after they've already blackened our eye?" said Paul DiMare, president of The DiMare Companies in Johns Island, S.C. "June and July are the best time of the year for tomatoes, but our movement has completely stopped in the United States."

Farmers, packers and shippers fear it could take months to rebuild the US$1.3 billion market for fresh tomatoes.

In Fresno County, one grower chose to lose US$225,000 by letting his tomatoes rot in the fields this weekend because he would have taken a bigger hit hiring crews to harvest them, said Ed Beckman, president of the statewide cooperative California Tomato Farmers.