Chronicle of raw materials
Tomato sauce and concentrate: an inevitable price increase
Audio 01:29
A field of tomatoes during harvest, in southern Italy.
© DR
By: Marie-Pierre Olphand Follow
2 mins
It is the raw material for pizza sauces and concentrates.
Tomatoes intended for industry face rising production costs that are hardly corrected by a price increase.
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Italy, the world's second largest producer, set its price this week and it is up 18% compared to last year – 109 euros per tonne against 92. A remuneration which should make it possible to cover the rising costs of production, but little more.
Since the war in Ukraine, diesel and fertilizer prices have reached levels that are difficult for farmers to bear.
If the bill for fresh tomatoes grown in gas-heated greenhouses is enormous, it is, for other reasons, also important for the field sector.
And directly threatens the volumes of the next harvests.
Production costs that weigh on the sector
The temptation to move towards alternative crops, less expensive to produce and at the moment much more profitable, is great: when you know that it takes at least 6,500 to 7,500 euros per hectare to produce full tomatoes field whereas it is more like 1,200 to 1,300 for wheat, the calculation is quickly made and some producers could prefer to plant wheat or sunflower tomorrow, the price of which has been multiplied by two.
Harvest forecasts for this summer already foresee a drop of 11% in the Europe-Mediterranean zone (16.8 million tonnes against 19 million last year).
And this on condition that Ukraine can produce at least two-thirds of its usual supply – that is at least 500,000 tonnes.
What is not won according to Tomato News, newsletter of the sector.
The year 2023 promises to be even more uncertain.
Tomato processors worried
Fewer tomatoes, when there is a need to replenish concentrate stocks, which were very depleted during the pandemic, following the explosion in demand, this does not bode well.
Especially since the drought could affect new Californian and Spanish production.
Processors are equally concerned, as they are dependent on gas prices to process tomatoes.
Those who do not have a contract with fixed prices over several years could be put in difficulty.
Especially since they must also collect an increase in the price of iron for cans and an increase in the price of packaging, recalls Robert Giovinazzo, director of Sonito, the French interprofessional organization for tomatoes intended for processing.
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