U.S. tomato farmers say want to dump Mexico deal (that they say has become "a charade".)

Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 6/25/12 | Doug Palmer - Reuters

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. tomato growers on Monday said they have formally asked the U.S. Commerce Department to tear up a pricing agreement with Mexican producers that they say has become "a charade."

Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Exchange, told Reuters U.S. producers want the pact voided so they can file a new anti-dumping complaint against Mexico.

The rare request comes in a dispute that dates back to 1996, when U.S. industry filed a petition accusing Mexican producers of selling in the United States at unfairly low prices.

Brown said the Commerce Department found that Mexican producers were dumping their tomatoes in the United States at nearly 188.5 percent below fair market value.

The department later agreed to suspend action on the petition and negotiate a "suspension" agreement with Mexican producers and exporters that established a minimum reference price for Mexican tomatoes in the United States.

In following years, two more suspension agreements were negotiated to replace the original pact, but the reference price barely changed, Brown said.

In the meantime, U.S. tomato imports from Mexico nearly tripled in value to about $1.8 billion last year.

[NormsRevenge]

Oh I bet they'll be all over this like steak sauce over at Commerce.

[nikos1121]

Yeah... let the US consumer pay double...

Reagan opened up markets... I go down to the grocery store and I have choices beyond my wildest imagination.... Sorry, but the American unions don’t like that...

And they inturn pay for our great meat...

I hate the greed in this country...Open up markets... compete fairly...and everyone benifits..

[JRandomFreeper]

Two words.

Explosive diarrhea.

It happens in fields with immigrant workers that don't have medical care. Or access to sanitation facilities. 'splashing fecal material' is NOT something I want in the field where my raw food is being grown.

It can kill those with compromised immune systems.

When I was cooking in restaurants, all of the raw field veg went into a weak bleach solution for a bit.

/johnny

[cripplecreek]

When my Chinese made garden sprinkler broke after a whopping 3 hours of use the other day I began pondering the possibility of opening a museum imported crap. It didn't take long for me to figure out that I'd need to rent a 100,000 square foot warehouse just to get started.

[freekitty]

Kind of like the fake bio fuel deal Mexico did a few years ago.

[hoosiermama]

THere was a thread a while back regarding produce being used in laundering drug money.....No cash sent south, just food that could be sold.

Anybody happen to keep that one? This may be related.

[Viking2002]

Meh. I've got two dozen cherry, San Marzano, Mr. Stripey, Mountain Pride, and Better Boy plants going in my garden. It's only June and my wife is canning already. I'll take them over any irradiated, green-picked, gas-ripened-in-transit grit balls any day, and I don't care which side of the border they're from.

"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

[headsonpikes]

“Brown said the Commerce Department found that Mexican producers were dumping their tomatoes in the United States at nearly 188.5 percent below fair market value.”

Well, no wonder they’re grabbing market share - I’d like some of that action. 188.5% below a fair price is gonna net me, after I dump the tomatos in the ditch, 88.5 centavos on the dollar in my pocket - net, net, NET!

Or, this idiot reporter is as innumerate as a pumpkin.

[Viking2002]

Good Lord, man, three hours??????

"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

[Rebelbase]

Ironic in that a group of legal Mexicans bought a couple of hundred acres of prime farmland and grow a few million tomato plants every year close to my parent’s place.

[cripplecreek]

Yep, I used it about an hour 3 times.



DON'T BUY THIS PRODUCT!

[Dutch Boy]

I caught that too. We could break the entire Mexican economy and make a tidy profit just by buying all their tomatoes at 188.5% below the market value.

No wonder we are so screwed. If they use the same math techniques on other things you might end of with a warming climate, jobs being created, a booming economy and that illegal aliens aren’t really illegal. Is that Spock with a goatee I see????

[Viking2002]

Are we talking a big garden area, or just a corner of the yard?

"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920

[TLI]

At the local g-store I will check the TINY labels for “mexico” on the vegetables I am getting. If I see it is, I state out loud “mexico? . . . NO WAY!”

I get some hard looks from the staff and some folks put their little plastic bags of whatever right back on the pile.

Then I go to the canned goods isles and laugh...

.

[cripplecreek]

Just a corner. I turned it on the other day and it was working fine. When I went out after dinner to turn it off it was broken.

[Still Thinking]

Brown said the Commerce Department found that Mexican producers were dumping their tomatoes in the United States at nearly 188.5 percent below fair market value.

[math facepalm]

[EricT.]

Last month, tomato farmers here in FL had a bumper crop of tomatoes. Because the price was so low, they could not afford to even harvest them and make a profit. They let people pay a dollar to come on the farm and pick a 5-gallon bucket full of tomatoes in order to cut their losses.

We got 58 excellent quality tomatoes for a buck. And a “free” kitten for my daughter.

[cripplecreek]

Didn’t Florida tomato farmers take a hit a couple years ago over some tainted tomatoes that turned out to have come from Mexico?

[Aria]

eeeuuuu!

umm...do you put all your veggies in a sort of weak bleach solution now?

[Viking2002]

Ah. I think they're all pretty much made in China these days. About the only thing American left are the seeds, and don't be surprised if Ferry-Morse gets bought out. Our homesteading/micro-farming has gotten to the point where I finally wised up last year. There was too much to just 'water', so I built my own irrigation system. I ended up purchasing a four outlet gang valve, about 250' of medium duty garden hose, a bag of male and female adapter fittings, and several oscillating and omnidirectional sprinklers. I ran lengths of hose along borders, edges, and under porches where they'd be out of the way of the lawn mower, cut each length to fit, spliced in an adapter, attached the proper sprinkler based on what/where they were watering, and now I just turn on the main valve - the pressure is pre-adjusted on each outlet of the gang valve. The only fly in the ointment is the Catawba grape arbor in the back corner of the yard - I actually have to get off my dead keister and drag a hose a hundred feet. LOL It is dry down here. Dry, dry, dry. And hot. We thought we were going to get a little relief from T.S. Debby, but, just like my wife, she changed her mind at the last minute and screwed up my plans. *Hmph* Women.

"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920