Tricky times – the challenges of securing tomato supplies.

A number of factors are now combining to impact the supply and price of tomatoes to the UK’s Italian food sector, tomatoes being the most essential - if not quintessential - ingredient to be used in Italian food. Pizza Pasta & Italian Food spoke with Casa Julia’s Enzo Santomauro to find out more…

FUEL SUPPLIES AND CROP YIELD

Having spoken with a number of tomato producers in the south of Italy, as Enzo Santomauro habitually does, the situation of the gas that goes to Germany (and then also to Italy), but at only around 20% of its usual level in recent times, is one thing that is having a major impact because much of the machinery involved in the tomato canning process runs on gas.

“Apart from the cost – that it’s gone up – 100/200%, whatever, that is not critical… What is critical is it not arriving at all. Because there is no alternative for them but to use gas. So these businesses don’t know if they are going to have to close down, or what is going to happen,” explains Enzo Santomauro.

“The other thing that is a bit more worrying is that we assume – everyone assumes – that the farmers are only getting 80% of what they usually get because it has been very dry in Italy. However, many of the farmers have been saying ‘no way, we’re not getting 80%, we’ve been running the factory now for a week and we’re getting 69 to 70% (yield)…’

“So there is a significant shortfall in production, and they can’t say what is going to happen, monetary-wise, this year compared to last. Last year, we paid 8.50 euros per case of tomatoes, today we are paying 15.50 euros… So it’s almost gone up by 100%, but they are not taking orders at that price.

“The producers have been saying no way are they taking any orders now until they know what’s going on... In turn, this is leaving the market over here (UK) literally in chaos because no wholesaler has got any tomatoes, because last year’s supply was a bit short as well, and many ran out. And so many, particularly in London, are now coming in my direction… We always buy more than we need – sometimes it works - so we feel that we have enough to meet our customers’ needs until the end of September.”

PRICE INCREASES

“Our first seven containers are leaving Italy for us this month, and then you have to allow about 18-20 days to be shipped to our warehouse,” Enzo Santomauro continues when it comes to the topic of this year’s crop.

“To be honest with you, the price is going to be very dear… In my recent communications with my customers, I have been saying to them that it’s going to cheaper to buy Peroni beer than tinned tomato… A beer is going to be cheaper! Tomatoes have always been a cheap product. It’s an important ingredient, but it

Enzo Santomauro (pictured right) with Carmine Carnevale at the recent European Pizza & Pasta Show held in London.

has not been an expensive ingredient. But now I think we are moving into another stage in the life of tomatoes, pizzerias and everything else. They are going to have to pay more, like everything else.

“There is very little supply of tomatoes in the UK at the moment… For instance, one of my wholesalers in London has bought San Marzano tomatoes at £24 per case just to be able to supply pizzerias with tomatoes because there was nothing else and this is what they had got – ‘take it or leave it’. And people are taking it because they can’t do a pizza without tomato. We’ve got a month’s, a little more than a month’s perhaps, supply before the first crop arrives in the UK. So what are they (operators) going to do? It’s difficult to know.

“Turkey has tomatoes, and California, but they are supplying home and other markets. So we are stuck at the moment. We can’t go anywhere else. It’s a problem.”

PRICE UNKNOWN

At the moment, Casa Julia anticipate that it will be possible to provide supplies of tomatoes for any orders placed with them up until June 2023 (they having placed orders for a significant number of containers). However, they are unable at the present time to let these customers know what the likely price will be until the full nature and yield of this year’s tomato crop is known for sure.

They can be certain of prices up until the end of August for the product they are shipping, but from the end of August to December, it will be a different price, they point out, and then from January to March it will be a different price, and then from March to the new season there will be a different price as well.

The feeling is that the producers all got together, whether officially or unofficially, to agree on this type of selling for now so that they don’t sell too cheap or end up saying “I’m not prepared to sell it to you this year” for instance. Sometimes, they might decide that because the price has gone up for shipping in a container, they are not prepared to sell at all, reveals Enzo Santomauro.

“This has happened to us and everyone in London, and even to the supermarkets, I understand. I have tried to say that I don’t think this is the right way to go forward. The way to go forward is to even breakeven for a bit so that at least you keep your customers, and you keep your quality and everything else,” proposes Enzo Santomauro.

Additionally, as opposed to having its generous amount of rain, the north of Italy has been very dry which has affected their tomato crops (although they do have the facilities to store water from when it rains a lot). Therefore, they have been going down to the south of Italy to buy tomatoes there, and the price being paid has been much higher than what has been agreed between farmers and factories (it is thought that they agreed on 14, then it became 16, but the buyers from the north have been offering 18 and 19 cents per kilo it is rumoured). So, what is it recommended that people – operators - do in this situation?

“Businesses need to sign up with a supplier now, because if, as is the case at Casa Julia, when they put their orders in – and the producers are going to give me the orders, but not the price as yet – at least I can say to them ‘you can get the tomatoes’,” says Enzo Santomauro.

“However, if they try to move from one supplier to the other, trying to save money, they could end up with no guarantee of any orders, and of course we like to be able to reward customers who are with us all year round if we can.”

Does Casa Julia foresee a situation where pizza will no longer be served with tomato? Or it becomes an expensive, even exclusive, ingredient?

“For the pizzerias, the fact that tomatoes have gone up in price 100% already only means a penny or two increase in the costs of a pizza, as when we put the price up for flour. At the end, it was a tuppence on the price of a pizza because a sack of flour can still be used to make say, 180, pizzas, so a £2 increase on the cost of a sack of flour is definitely nothing. It is more the shortage rather than the price,” says Enzo Santomauro.

“If you are going to be sensible and we are not going to get 100% profit, or

whatever, just keep the profits ‘as usual’ – if necessary do even a bit less profit for the importer – this will mean that the pizzeria will ‘not notice’, or rather, it will not influence their price. It shouldn’t do. I pray to God that we are all now not going to do white pizza, rather than use tomato because of course Neapolitan pizza is 100% tomato.”

NEW WAYS OF DOING THINGS

“One thing we have done that is important to mention is that two years ago we started to try and stop all the unrecyclable packaging coming in and that was just going into the rubbish, which is why we are using bag in box of 10kg for tomatoes, and which uses less packaging and is more environmentally friendly,” says Enzo Santomauro.

“We are working with two factories who use this type of packaging for us, and more and more customers are saying it’s not like receiving tomatoes which they can always see whole and ‘squeeze in their hands’, as such, but that the product quality is still very good, and that it can be used to make a variety of Italian dishes.”

Additionally, there is, in any case, now a shortage of people who would have traditionally worked in the canning process Italy, as well as in the fields harvesting the tomato crops, many having not returned to work since Covid, and some able to claim a monthly subsidy (thought to be in the region of 1000 euros) from the government. The harvesting of tomatoes has also become more mechanised, unlike picking by hand where under-ripe tomatoes can be left on the vine to be picked another day, thereby helping to maintain product quality.

“We are buying and storing as many tomatoes as we can, because we are sure something will give, but there is of course a limit to how much anyone can store, operator or supplier. It’s all a question of talking to the canners and about working together,” suggests Enzo Santomauro.

In the longer term, to help improve matters in situations like the one now being faced, investment in new buildings, which hasn’t really been done for many decades, and in machinery too, needs to be carried out, he feels. After all, if the price of the product itself produced is going up, why would the banks not be interested in helping to invest in the buildings and machinery used to make it, he argues?

Traditionally, for example, the colour of tomatoes has been checked visually by eye, but there is automated equipment such as Magic Eye which can improve this process, and indeed some canners he deals with have upped their number of these installations to help check the condition of the tomatoes before they go to be canned. Yet, still today, this process is mostly carried out by hand (the canning of tomatoes typically at its peak during an intense two-month period in the summer).

The price of everything – petrol, gas etc – is going up, but there is not a shortage, as such, it is just that with the prevailing situation in Ukraine comes uncertainty with people deciding not to supply or import, and bans being put in place, Enzo Santomauro reminds, but as soon as such restrictions are lifted, the resultant problems should be ones that it is possible to solve fairly swiftly, he feels.

“The fact is, demand for, and consumption of, pizza is on the rise in UK – it’s maybe even more popular than fish and chips here! – in which case, tomatoes will be in increasing demand and more will be needed of a higher quality to maintain a high quality pizza product, backed by the availability, and training, of skilled people to make it,” concludes Enzo Santomauro.

Bag in box packaging is helping to cut down on packaging waste.