US (CA): Tomato growers seek eaters

If every day were Super Bowl Sunday, growers of canning tomatoes would win big. That day outpaces all others for salsa consumption, marketing expert Al Ban-isch told growers gathered in Modesto on Wednesday. But the tomato market overall has shrunk in the past few years, despite the widespread use in pasta, pizza, ketchup, soup and other products, Banisch said. The answer? Promote the health benefits of canned tomatoes along with their taste and convenience. "These products are associated with happy times," Banisch said. "They are also, compared to other foods, incredibly affordable and appealing to everyone."
He spoke at the 64th annual meeting of the California Tomato Growers Association, which drew about 250 people to Modesto Centre Plaza. The members grow tomatoes bound for canneries, rather than the fresh-market crop that earns a much larger price per ton. Processing tomatoes brought an estimated $276 million in gross income to farmers in the Northern San Joaquin Valley in 2009, according to county crop reports. Several thousand people work from July to October at the region's canneries. Banisch used to oversee marketing of Heinz ketchup, made in Stockton. Now he is a managing director at Sterling-Rice Group, a consulting firm based in Boulder, Colo. He is helping spread the word about studies suggesting that canned tomatoes could help prevent cancer, heart disease, obesity, dementia and other ills.
More science backing up claim. So is Rodger Wasson, program coordinator for the Tomato Products Wellness Council. "You have more science, more body of work, on tomato products than any commodity I know," he said. Wasson used to head the Almond Board of California, a Modesto-based group that has greatly boosted demand for a nut once thought to be unhealthy. The average American ate 21.5 pounds of canned tomatoes in 1970 and 25.6 pounds in 2005, but the figure slipped to 23.3 pounds in 2008, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported. "It's been a slow bleed, but per-capita consumption of tomato products has been declining," Banisch said. One reason could be the emergence of Asian cuisines that do not rely so much on tomatoes, he said. Another could be the ability of food manufacturers to reduce tomato content without compromising quality, he said.
Last year's California harvest of 12.3 million tons exceeded the demand, said Mike Montna, president and chief executive officer of the grower group. That left a large carry-over into 2011, mainly in the form of bulk tomato paste. Growers had seen increases in the per-ton price from processors in recent years, from $50 in 2005 to $80 in 2009. It dropped last year to $65, about the break-even level, said Aaron Barcellos, a grower in the Los Banos area. The 2011 price has not been negotiated, but it will have to cover increased costs for fertilizer and fuel, said Barcellos, first vice chairman of the association. On the upside, he said, water supplies have improved for growers who had been squeezed by the drought and fish protections.