The San Joaquin Valley is within easy driving distance from here, but I see very few, if any, tomatoes from there in the supermarket. I read the labels as to where they are from, and even high-end markets like Whole Foods get most of their tomatoes from Mexico—even exotic varieties like heirloom tomatoes.
“...most of their tomatoes from Mexico...”
When I was a kid in California, we bought most of our local tomatoes from places like Fresno, Yolo, San Joaquin, Kings, and Colusa Counties. Significant production also occurs in Merced, Stanislaus, Solano, and Sutter Counties.
And the time of year one shops in California is part of ther equation, also.
The peak export season for Mexico runs from January to June, with the highest volumes in March, a contribution that complements production in the United States, which takes place mostly in California and Florida during the months of June to October.
We do buy a lot of tomatoes from Mexico along with Canada. But during the season the sales are cut down, the local products are used more. World tomato exports have increased by an average of 0.9% each year from 2011 to 2020, a trend that will apparently continue for at least a couple of years, making this agri-food product extremely important in economic terms, mainly for the countries most involved in its trade flow, such as Mexico, the United States, the Netherlands and Germany.
wy69