FL Farmers Target Inexpensive Mexican Tomatoes
Why let consumers choose?
An otherwise obscure ruling by the Department of Commerce in a 16-year-old case involving tomatoes has prompted warnings of a trade war with Mexico and taken on outsize election-year significance in the crucial swing state of Florida.
The dispute pits Florida's agricultural lobby against the Mexican government and a coalition of angry growers south of the border.
Depending on who you believe, Thursday was either a bad day for lovers of both free trade and vine-ripened romas — a prelude to higher prices — or the first step in the renaissance of a U.S. tomato industry that has been in decline.