Get ready to fork out more cash for salsa, ketchup, and tomato sauce. Much of America's "salad bowl" is still underwater after a series of atmospheric river-fueled storms pummeled California over the winter. And now, with the snowmelt, tomato farmers can't seem to get their fields dry.
"When it comes to tomatoes, one of my favorite foods, we are going to see some shortages. We are going to see some delays," the Supermarket Guru, Phil Lempert, told FOX Weather. "Tomato sauce, ketchup, salsa, just about anything that has a tomato we're going to see going up in prices."
Round after round of flooding rain from atmospheric river storms pounded California farms this winter. Now, in the dry season, warm weather is melting the record snowpack flooding farms again. Satellite images show a lake drained for agricultural land reappearing in the Central Valley.
"We've had 12 atmospheric rivers here in California," explained market analyst Lempert. "That means 78 trillion tons of water have been dropped on the state." As waters slowly recede, some farmers are delaying planting by a month, he said. Others may not be able to plant in time. At the height of the growing season, California produces an average of 2 billion tomatoes a week, according to the California Tomato Growers' Association. Every week, farmers usually fill 40,000 trucks, each carrying about 300,000 tomatoes or 50,000 pounds.
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