U.S. President Donald Trump's administration announced on July 14 a new duty on Mexican tomatoes, which account for more than two-thirds of the tomatoes eaten in the U.S., effectively bringing to an end an export deal between the two countries. In response, Mexican President, Claudia Sheinbaum, said she hoped to announce measures next week in conjunction with tomato producers. With the tomato stand-off awaiting the reaction of Mexico to the U.S.'s new 17% duties on imports from its southern neighbor, New York tomato wholesalers acknowledge the stress of being left in a state of limbo. At the same time, Trump can count on support in the industry even as he invites disruption. According to a member from the family-run Jacob's Tomato Corp, which says it is the largest produce wholesaler and distributor in New York City, the back and forth has been unsettling.
00:00Hola, soy Shai Yosefov con Jacob's Village Farm.
00:26We are a wholesale distributor here in New York City, and we're going to talk about some
00:31tomatoes, whatever we offer.
00:40So these are cherry on the vine tomatoes.
00:51We handle about 300,000 pounds of tomatoes a year.
00:58And we get it through Texas, we get it through Canada, through the United States, and mainly
01:05a lot of the tomatoes, they come from Mexico.
01:0890% of our tomatoes come from Mexico.
01:10And with the tariffs going on right now, we kind of don't know where we're going to be.
01:17The United States can't handle the demand for
01:47they don't grow enough to supply the United States of America.
01:52So if you carry through an America first trade policy that actually doesn't pick winners
02:10and losers from US manufacturers, that doesn't unnecessarily raise grocery prices, you get
02:16the benefit of the leverage of the trade negotiating table, the enhanced export market access for U.S.
02:22producers that are selling abroad.
02:24You've seen this carried through in some of the recent administration announcements where
02:28they are showing that having sort of a tough trade negotiating stance is driving wins.
02:34And so if you can get that without some of the immediate harm, like consumers feeling the pain at the grocery store, that is a win-win.
02:43And that's achievable if you, again, fine tune the approach, if you sort of just like dial in and make sure that you're not imposing tariffs on unavailable natural resources,
02:53or that you're recognizing availability concerns as part of that, and that level of fine tuning and not being so like it's all or nothing,
03:00I think actually creates a lot more leverage for the U.S.
03:17I came into this business because everybody has to eat, you know, everybody eats tomatoes, you go to a restaurant, you see tomatoes, you go home, you see tomatoes.
03:24So my father was in the business and I was like, you know what, everybody has to eat.
03:30I left high school, I graduated and I was like, I'm going, I'm going to sell tomatoes.
03:35And that's when I, when I realized that this is a very lucrative business and I was like, I'm going to do it for my whole life.
03:43You know, it's a, it's a generational, it's, we're never going to stop eating, you know, no one's going to stop eating tomatoes.
03:54It's not realistic because not a lot of people are growing a wide variety of tomatoes in the United States.
04:21And the labor here is too much money and they're, they're not going to do the work here in Mexico.
04:27They're going to do the work.
04:28They're going to get it done.
04:29And, and I don't think in the United States, they're going to get it done.
04:51So they can get it done.
04:52And, what does that change plan?
04:55And what we're doing is we're going to do the work at the state.
05:15Los mexicanos costan $2.
05:45México, Canadá, U.S.
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06:43Podría ser disruptivo, básicamente, porque vamos a ser muy limitados en los tomates.
06:49Hay gente que no tiene tomates en sus shelves o en sus restaurantes,
06:54dependiendo de la variedad que necesitan, porque hay tantas variedades de tomates.
