Ketchup, spaghetti sauce, tomato soup and salsa, all staples in the American kitchen, may be in short supply with higher prices this summer after record rainfall saturated California's tomato fields.
With soil still too wet for planting, farmers postponed the season's start by three weeks, which could translate into a shortage of tomato-based items this summer, according to individual farmers and the California Tomato Growers Association.
The most dire predictions come from farmers themselves, who say some of them could be forced out of the tomato-growing business.
To make up for a shortened planting season, which usually runs 12 weeks from late February to May, some growers are putting more seeds into the ground than usual. But even then, it may be too late, they said.
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“I don’t think anybody is very optimistic about what our yields are going to be this year,” said Aaron Barcellos, a fourth-generation farmer who owns A-Bar Ag Enterprises in the San Joaquin Valley, California's main agricultural region, which is nicknamed "America's salad bowl."
