Industrial tomatoes, agreement on price in the South. But the uncertainty over US duties remains

Duties and climate change loom like a cleaver over processing tomatoes, while the first projections for the 2025 campaign come from the World Processing Tomato Council, which for Italy estimate a 6% increase in production compared to last year, in contrast to China (which is losing quotas, in favour of more profitable crops) and California (whose production is expected to fall by 7.5%).

Meanwhile the agreement for the management of the next processing campaign in the Central Southern Italy Basin has been closed. The parties have defined an average reference price of EUR 147.50 per tonne for round tomatoes, EUR 155 per tonne for long tomatoes, and a surcharge of EUR 42.50 per tonne for organic tomatoes. The agreement introduces a series of changes to the raw material evaluation criteria, in particular to the parameters relating to "foreign bodies" and "green tomatoes", with the introduction of a new system of quality grids and premium mechanisms that will allow the agricultural side a higher remuneration compared to last year's conditions, while guaranteeing canning companies a higher quality of raw material for processing.

But in this beginning of the campaign the spotlight is focused overseas and on the US market, which with its 430 million euro export (including derivatives and ready-made sauces) represents the first non-EU outlet for the processing industry, so much so that in 2018 the sector was exempt from duties. "Today, with tariffs at 10% and customs duties at 12%, we reach 22%," comments Giovanni De Angelis, which, for a product with a vocation for internationalisation like ours, represents a debacle. The Director General of Anicav then opens his reflections on two topics: the fact of having to compete on even more unequal terms with the number one rival, California, at home, and the difficulties of conquering alternative markets such as Asia, where such characterised products (such as tomato sauce) are difficult to penetrate, due to issues concerning cultural and culinary traditions.

Costantino Vaia (Casalasco) points out that, despite the customs duty on tomato derivatives, in recent years there has nevertheless been 'continuous growth in exports to that market'. According to the CEO, 'this new aggravation certainly penalises exporters, but also American consumers, who will have less accessibility to a quality product'. Even Francesco Mutti - 'the leading Italian tomato brand in the US' - makes it a question of quality, the main driver in the choice of US consumers. However, the CEO considers 'duties on all European goods to be a worrying choice, because it occurs without a clear rationale and in an already extremely unstable international context'. Mutti then speaks of an 'anti-historical measure, which will have a destabilising effect on the international market and social consequences for trading partners'.

Alessandro Squeri, managing director of Steriltom - a leading EU company in the production of tomato pulp for the food service and industrial sectors - says he is very concerned: 'Trump's additional duties could bring us to our knees: the risk is that the highest price will be paid by employment levels, with obvious repercussions on production levels as well.