Tomato prices set record high

It's not just your local grocery store. Tomato prices have skyrocketed nationwide.

Tomato prices in the U.S. hit a record high in April, according to the Federal Reserve — $2.69 per pound. That's 40% higher than tomatoes were a year earlier, significantly outpacing the 17% increase in overall food costs over the same time period, according to Hortidaily. In fact, tomato prices have risen higher than any other food product in the last year, as reported by the Associated Press.

A variety of factors contributed to the price hike for tomatoes, including disease and "extreme weather," the AP reported.

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A deep freeze during Florida's peak tomato season reduced the domestic crop size this year, as CNN reported. But about 90% of the tomatoes consumed in the U.S. come from Mexico, where bad weather also impacted the tomato crop. In March, Mexico's top agricultural consulting firm attributed higher prices to "an internal supply shock caused by frost and weather damage in Sinaloa, Zacatecas, Puebla, and Morelos, which decreased the availability of red, green, and courgette tomatoes," according to Hortidaily. Saladette tomato prices rose a staggering 87% as a result.

Phillip Coles, a professor of supply chain management at Lehigh University, told the AP that tomato prices should drop later this year when domestically grown tomatoes are harvested. The current high prices will encourage farmers to plant more, but the fruits of their labor will take time before you get some relief at the supermarket checkout.

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