Associate Director of Dining Services Ken Cardone said that the Dining Service at Bowdoin, which serves locally grown tomatoes, has felt only minor reverberations from the devastating loss of tomato crops in Florida.
The Associated Press (AP) reported yesterday that Florida growers may have lost up to 70 percent of their tomato crops due to an 11-day freeze in January.
A new Florida-produed crop of tomatoes will come into season in April. Until then, businesses must pay the price or do without.
Though the AP reported that in some places tomatoes are not available at all, the Dining Service buys tomatoes from Backyard Farms in Madison, Maine, which has experienced only a minor price hike.
"We saw a slight increase in price," said Cardone. "A couple dollars a case right now."
Cardone said that "it's a little too early to tell" precisely how the tomato market will react to the decreased supply, adding that limited product in future weeks might cause a more severe price increase.
But, he added "so far, so good."