Florida and Mexico are two of the biggest providers of tomatoes, and it’s estimated that about “one out of two tomatoes eaten in the United States comes from Mexico” (Strom and Malkin). Florida tomato growers are willing to change that statistic even if it means entering into a trade war. This could become a reality if the United States Chamber of Commerce ends their 16-year tomato agreement with Mexican growers. This agreement set a minimum price that Mexican tomatoes could enter the U.S. market. But Mexico warned the U.S. that they would retaliate. They declared that the Obama administration was just trying to calm the Florida growers because they are an important state in regards to his reelection.

The Mexicans argument is that they are being attacked because they have a better product than Florida producers do. They invested a lot into new greenhouses, growing new types of tomatoes, and in complicated agricultural methods in order to increase the quality and productivity of their tomatoes. Mexico’s tomatoes are also vine-ripened, which is much better than the tomatoes grown in Florida. In Florida, they are picked while still green and gassed with ethylene in order for them to become red.

Many commodity producers and stores, such as Walmart , are afraid that prices will need to be raised and other products would get caught up in the trade war. This would be quite disastrous and in the end, nobody would win. Since the 1996 agreement, Florida tomato sales dropped from $500 million to $250 million per year. That is half of their profit gone, which is why it is in the interests of the Florida tomato producers to have the agreement revoked. The price of Mexican tomatoes are so low that American tomato growers state that they can barely keep up with that sort of price competition.

While the Floridian company is having their little crisis, the economy