CTGA Tomato Bulletin

July 11, 2006

Dear Tomato Grower:

2006 Harvest Finally Underway:

Harvest began in Kern County this past week with Del Monte and Hunts starting their organic pack. Rio Bravo started its conventional pack. This week we should see SK Lemoore, Los Gatos, Ingomar, and Morning Star get rolling. A couple points to consider:

· 2006 start up is truly late – latest in past 10 yrs

· PTAB estimates that only 87,500 tons will be processed by 7/15

· All crops since 1995 that exceeded 10,000,000 tons had at least 897,000 processed by 7/15 with the average at 1,485,000

Growers Optimistic about Crop Quality:

Although there are scattered reports of spotted wilt, curly top and corky root, growers are optimistic about the crop’s quality and yield potential. Due to the late start, the biggest concern facing growers is the bunching of delivery periods. Starting mid August ripe fruit is projected to exceed available processing capacity.

Processors will attempt to move quickly so they don’t get behind, but this may require some fields to be harvested earlier than a grower may prefer.

The Northern growing region isn’t likely to get started with any sizeable volume prior to August 5 and not reach capacity until early September. Some northern processing capacity may be utilized to offset bunching in the Southern region.

Five Points Regional Grower’s Meeting:

As a follow up to the statewide growers meeting held at Harris Ranch last month 10

Huron – Five Points area growers met last week to begin discussions about 2007 pricing and terms of trade.

Tomatoes produced in this region have a strong value proposition for the following reasons:

· highest concentration of processing capacity in state

· early delivery position - critical for processors to get sufficient processing days

· higher solids than state average yielding more paste per ton

· large contiguous, high yielding fields which create harvesting efficiencies

· few weather related problems

Ironically this area typically does not get top dollar for its fruit and pays higher harvest rates. Other areas of discussion:

· 2007 will be a sellers market

· Harvesting costs should be included in 2007 price discussion

· 2007 price should be set by September

The next meeting for Huron - Five Points area will be in early August.

The CTGA will organize a Firebaugh – Los Banos grower meeting within 2 weeks.

Promotion:

The CTGA in cooperation with UC Davis will host a two day industry round table discussion September 13 & 14 at UC Davis. The conference will include participation from major health & nutrition researchers from major brands and other universities with the goal of addressing the clinical research gaps that need to be filled to provide compelling arguments for increasing processed tomato consumption. Processors will be invited to participate in the discussions.

More details to follow.

Sustainable Tomatoes:

CTGA Chairman Don Cameron recently attended a conference hosted by Wal-Mart which addressed Wal-Mart’s expectations that its suppliers will provide sustainably grown products. If the tomato industry moves quickly, it will be able to design its own program that would suit both grower & customer (Wal-Mart’s) needs. The “UC Year Round IPM Program” is almost complete so the Processed Tomato Foundation effort led by Chuck Rivara can pick up its pace.

Diesel Update:

Diesel rack prices through June still running approximately $0.60/gallon above June 2005 and a $1.10 over June 2004.

Questions or comments? Please call.

Ross Siragusa

President/CEO