Tomato farmers able to make quota

Tomato farmers in Chatham-Kent are still able to make their quota after the delayed start to the harvest because of late blight.

Late blight has been an issue in fields around Chatham-Kent due to bad weather conditions. The frost that came in during planting in the spring, can cause growth in diseases and can spread throughout the crop.

Brad Martin has been farming tomatoes for 20 years. This year he planted 100 acres with most of his fields being in Wabash, Ont. He has a contract with ConAgra Foods in Dresden, Ont. to grow 4,000 tonnes of tomatoes, or 8 million pounds, since there has been an increase of demand this year. He said the bad weather delayed planting.

“Planting started on May 8 but early frost destroyed the 23 acres planted so I had to start over planting. I got about 35 acres planted then it started raining for three weeks which delayed planting further. Once it dried up I planted the rest of the fields all at once,” said Martin.

This season has been difficult for Martin because his tomatoes are not ripening fast enough.

“Normally planting is staggered so they ripen timely to harvest but this year has been challenging because they were all planted at once,” said Martin.

However Sam Janovicek, who has been farming for 53 years, said this season has been average for him. He has planted 140 acres and did not lose any tomatoes to poor weather conditions.

“We are very fortunate. We have lots (of tomatoes) that are ripe but we didn’t get the big rain like they did in Wabash. I think it was four inches and we got about two inches,” said Janovicek.

So far, Janovicek has been able to meet his tomato quota but there has been a time where he was not able to do so.

“We had six to eight inches of rain in one day and it knocked out about 85 per cent of our crop,” said Janovicek.

Like most farmers Janovicek has crop insurance so if farmers lose crops or revenue they are able to protect themselves financially.  Sometimes if farmers are not able to make their quota ConAgra Foods takes the extra produce.

“As far as meeting quota I will be close. Generally the company has growers spread out so if one area has problems other growers will have surplus tonnage to make up for other growers shortfall,” said Martin. “Usually I have been able to meet my quota and most years have had extra tonnage. They usually take the tomatoes because other growers were short.”

Since poor weather conditions have had an effect on this year’s crop Martin said he has had to spend more money on sprays to ripen his tomatoes.

“Disease pressure this year has been very high so I had to spray more often to keep diseases off of the crop,” said Martin. “I have had to spend more on fungicides and ripening agents this year to keep the crop advancing.”

This year Ontario tomato farmers have planted around 10,600 acres of processing tomatoes.  Chatham-Kent makes up 55 per cent of tomatoes grown in Ontario and Essex County makes up 45 per cent.