July 25, 2003

1.       $5.00 per Net Ton for tomatoes delivered from September 16, 2003, through September 25, 2003.

            2.       $7.50 per Net Ton for tomatoes delivered from September 26, 2003, through the end of the season.

The processors that have previously signed with the Association (The Morning Star Packing Co., Ingomar Packing Co., Los Gatos Tomato Products, and Small Planet Foods) have been offered revised Price Schedules that reflect Late Season Premiums specified above. CTGA recognizes that there are a variety of issues surrounding the late season premiums and believes that thorough discussion needs to take place in the fall well before contracting begins to address everyone’s concerns.  We are inviting all interested parties to be part of this process.

A summary of the newly signed agreements is as follows:

ConAgra and Del Monte will have a Base Price of $49.75 with a 1X dockage for green throughout the entire range bringing the annual contract price to $50.00 per net ton. All other terms are standard.  The “split-the-difference” term contracts will utilize a Base Price of $50.00 with terms and premiums as specified in those contracts.

Unilever will pay a flat $50.00 per net ton with standard terms and revised late season premiums detailed above.

Escalon will use a similar incentive type contract that the company has used in the past.  They will build off a $48.00 Base Price and offer “up-side only” incentives for Soluble Solids, MOT, Green and a combination of Limited Use & Agtron to reach a weighted average price of $50.00 per net ton based on three-year average quality.  The contract has an upside potential of $54.30.  The company will also use the revised late season premiums.

To date the following processors have signed Master Agreements with the Association that hold a $50.00 Base Price and terms of trade as outlined above:

The Morning Star Packing Co.
Ingomar Packing Co.
Los Gatos Tomato Products
Small Planet Foods
ConAgra Grocery Products Co.
Del Monte Foods, U.S.A.
Unilever Bestfoods
Escalon Premier Brands
 

Just as tomatoes and peaches grow ripe for the picking, Central Valley canneries have agreed on a new, three-year contract to replace the one that expired July 1.
 
Allaying concerns of a possible labor dispute, the contract, which covers about 15,000 cannery workers, was approved last week by about two-thirds of the union members in votes across the region.
 
Although some workers had hoped for a better deal, union leaders said this was the best they could do given the sagging economy. “Obviously, everyone wanted more,” said John Hailstone, secretary-treasurer Teamsters union Local 748, which represents about 7,500 cannery workers. “But that’s where we’re at with this economy.”
 
Local cannery officials directed phone calls to California Processors Inc., the consortium that represented employers. John Hurley, the group’s president, did not return phone calls from The Bee on Monday.
 
The contract spreads small wage increases over three years, while making slight improvements in some health and welfare benefits.
 
Under the new contract, workers in the top wage bracket, now paid $20.16 an hour, will receive raises totaling $2.10 an hour by 2005.
 
During the same period, workers in the lowest bracket, now paid $10.17 an hour, can expect an increase of 45 cents an hour.
 
The approved contract also restores many of the cuts to health and welfare benefits proposed in the original contract.
 
In late June, cannery workers overwhelmingly voted down that proposal, calling for a strike if a better deal could not be reached.
 
Despite some frustrations, Hailstone said he was pleased that an agreement was reached in time for the summer canning rush.
 
“It’s good to move past this stage. We’re going to be full throttle in a couple weeks,” he said.
 

Just one serving a day of tomato-based foods such as pizza or tomato sauce could lower your risk for heart disease by as much as 30 percent, contends new Harvard study.
 
“The results are pretty enticing,” says study author Howard Sesso, an assistant professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “They’re encouraging enough for us to do more studies.”
 
Sesso and his colleagues reviewed the diets of approximately 40,000 women from the ongoing Women’s Health Study, which was begun 11 years ago to follow women who, at the time, were free from cancer and cardiovascular disease.
 
Controlling for factors such as age, family history, smoking status and other health indicators, they found women who consumed seven or more servings of tomato-based foods a week – including tomato juice, tomatoes, tomato sauce or pizza – had a nearly 30 percent reduction in risk for cardiovascular disease compared with women who ate less than one and one-half servings a week.
 
The study was sparked by research that has shown a connection between an increase in the diet of the antioxidant lycopene and a reduction in risk for prostate cancer, Sesso says. Since tomatoes are a rich source of lycopene, he and his colleagues were interested to learn if the same antioxidant qualities, when eaten in tomatoes, might also lower heart disease risk.
 
Interestingly, however, when the researchers tabulated the result, the lycopene intake itself was not significantly associated with reduced heart disease risk. However, when they looked at food intake, as measured by self reported servings, there was a clear cardiovascular benefit for those who consumed the tomato-based products on a regular basis.
 
This could be due to errors in measuring lycopene, Sesso says, because of the limited information available in the questionnaire. Or, another substance in the tomato-based foods could be providing the heart benefit, he says.
 
Whatever the cause, he says, “our study suggests preliminary evidence that consuming a number of servings of tomato-based foods per week may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.” The finding appears in the July issue of the American Society for Nutritional Sciences.
 
Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition for Washington University in St. Louis, finds the study promising, both because the large number of women surveyed make the results significant and because the findings concur with other work on the topic.
 
“The results may still be inconclusive, but the indication that lycopene/tomatoes may aid in the prevention of disease continues to evolve,” she says. “I would encourage people to take these results and add them to the growing list of studies that point to the benefits of more fruits, vegetables and whole grains.”
 
Sesso points out that those people who showed the benefit from eating the tomato foods might just have an overall healthier diet than those who had fewer servings of tomatoes.
 

John C. Welty
Executive Vice President
 

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