Since reaching a high water mark of 77.4 pounds per person in 1991, per capita consumption has been in a gradual decline.  Other than a couple of small bumps, the consumption rate has dropped every year.  The 68.7 pounds registered in 2001 represents an 11 percent decrease since the 1991 season.

While processing tomatoes are the vegetable that has come the closest to achieving its "Five a Day" goal at 80 percent, we are far from fulfilling our potential.  A mature industry is one that can be described as having saturated its market and whose growth is limited to the rate of population growth, 1-2 percent in the USA.  If this were the case for processing tomatoes we would be seeing consumption in the 90-pound range instead of 68 pounds.

The processing tomato industry did show good growth in the early 1990s with the introduction of new products, especially in the ethnic arena.  Increased popularity of salsa, pizza and Italian sauces spurred that growth a decade ago.

This reversal of fortunes can be explained in part by the adoption of new technologies.  New hybrid tomato varieties bred specifically for their processing attributes have combined with state-of-the-art processing facilities to create a much more efficient industry.  There is no doubt that the processors have been able to produce more cases of tomato products per ton of raw tomatoes than they have ever done before.  In addition, new sauces and salsas have been jumping on the diversity bandwagon and creating new recipe formulations that tend to displace some of the tomato products with that of other vegetables.  In short, processors have been able to make more with less.

Consequently, if we measured consumption in cases of tomato-based products consumed, rather than on a farm weight basis, we would most likely see a much healthier picture.  But these circumstances do not adequately explain the gap between the 68 pounds per capita consumption we experienced in 2001 and our potential of 90 pounds or more.

We have lived on our laurels for far too long.  Tomatoes are a fabulous product.  Their bright red color, taste, goodness and popularity have helped them literally sell themselves.

Well the party is over!!  We are falling behind because we are not adequately promoting our product.  We need to compete for the consumers' food preferences through taste, visual attraction, smell, image, nutritional value, sense of well-being and connectedness.

We are losing the race as other commodity groups vigorously promote their products to the public.  TOMATOES have a natural advantage that we need to fully take advantage of in the competition for the consumer's hearts and stomachs.

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