U.S. tomato retail prices climbed to an average of $2.69 per pound in April, up nearly 40% year-over-year according to Federal Reserve data — the highest level on record. That's more than double the 17% increase seen across overall food costs during the same period, making tomatoes one of the most significant outliers in the current inflationary environment.
This builds on what's been an already stressed tomato supply picture. Tariff pressures, weather disruptions, and freight costs have all been layered onto a category that was already running lean. While this story adds new government pricing data not previously reported in Ripe, the structural pressures driving it have been building for weeks.
Buyers and category managers negotiating promotional pricing right now are doing so in a very different cost environment than this time last year.