Jack Frost’s prolonged and icy grip on Florida farms is now reaching into grocery stores and restaurants across the country.
With tomato costs surging to nearly five times their normal cost after Florida’s harsh winter led to a smaller crop, restaurants are now finding ways to conserve the popular food.
“Instead of six slices of tomatoes per sub, we’re now doing four slices per sub,” said Tom Neal, owner of the Subway at 1005 W University Ave.
Harry Klee, a UF horticulture professor, said the tomato shortage will not affect grocery stores as much as restaurants because the stores will simply charge more to recover their costs.
“[Restaurants] can’t just raise their prices, so they’ll temporarily have to eat their costs,” Klee said.
Jay Scott, managing editor for Tomato Genetics Cooperative, a group of tomato researchers sponsored by UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, said although tomatoes could be bred to withstand the winter, it wouldn’t be worth it because Florida isn’t likely to have these extreme temperatures again.
“Working on freeze tolerance would be difficult and might be really hard to get the types of horticultural characteristics that farmers want,” said Scott, who holds a doctorate in horticultural science.
For tomato growers, the winter will continue to hurt even after the freeze.
“You go from a short supply to an oversupply, and the prices are hurt,” he said. “It’s a double whammy.”
Klee expects tomato production to reach normal standards by mid- to late April.
