If you are a fan of Italian foods and a lover of seasonal products, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that, in this blog post, we are talking about tomatoes. Bright red, just like a section of our national flag, juicy and tasty, tomatoes are a constant presence on our dining tables during the hottest months of the year.
Think of caprese (sliced mozzarella and tomatoes, garnished with basil leaves and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil), mixed salads, cold pasta salads, vegetarian cous cous, some lovely bruschetta with fresh oregano and plenty of other recipes: there seems no way of escaping this versatile fruit if one wants to really enjoy the best flavors of summertime.
Besides home preparations, supported by the retail sector, tomatoes have also become very popular in the foodservice industry and used in hotels, restaurants and in fast-food outlets. Since these businesses are significantly growing across the world, they are literally propelling the tomato market forward.
So much so, that – as suggested by the World Processing Tomato Council (WPTC) – this is projected to register a CAGR of 5.6% over a range of five years (2023-2028). The increasing interest in wellness and in a correct nutrition – one of the results of the COVID-19 pandemic – helps boosting the demand for fruits and vegetables, including tomatoes.
Despite minor differences in the main producing countries – mostly due to the impact of global warming and local economic inflations – and despite the challenges, that include rising input costs and energy crises, tomato prices have generally remained in a rising trend.
Given the growing demand, production has grown as well: according to WPCT ‘s early forecasts, 41.8 million tonnes of tomatoes will be globally processed in 2023. The variance between early forecasts and last forecasts may affect these figures; yet, over the last ten years, the reliability of WPTC’s early forecast has been around +/-6% from actual therefore the growth will remain significant.
Although tomatoes are strictly linked to our culinary tradition, some of the fastest-growing production countries in the market are in the Asia-Pacific area. If tomato is one of the third most important crops under the Indian government’s top priority list of horticultural crops, it is registering the biggest, continuous growth of acreage in China.
In Italy, the bet is on agriculture 4.0, which is not just about the implementation of innovative technologies but finding new ways to build a digital ecosystem which can improve the efficiency and the efficacy of the entire tomato production system.