This morning, tariffs are taking aim at one of the most common vegetables in your kitchen: tomatoes.
You could see price hikes as soon as today on tomatoes imported from Mexico. Over the weekend, the White House announced 30 percent tariffs on Mexico and the European Union, starting on August 1.
It came after Friday's announcement of a 35 percent tax on goods from Canada.
Watch the full report from Brittany Toolis in the video player below
We were live at Shed 7 at Eastern Market this morning, where a lot of the tomatoes at metro Detroit restaurants and grocery stores get their tomatoes. Growers and distributors I talked with here both say the U.S. backing out of the tomato suspension agreement levels the playing field for U.S. farmers competing with low labor costs in Mexico.
"(We grow a) lot of cucumbers, lot of tomatoes, some blueberries," said Everette Leitz with Centennial Farms.
While Detroit sleeps, Michigan farmers at Eastern Market's Shed 7 are on the move.
"Everything I do is wholesale," Everette said.
"We grow them for our own production in season for sales," said Robert Ruhlig, the owner of Ruhlig Farms and Operator of RJR Distribution. "In the off-season when we are not in production, we have a distribution warehouse, so we have to import them from somewhere,e whether it’s Florida, California, Mexico, or Canada."
Starting July 14th, Tomatoes from Mexico will face a 21 percent tariff. The U.S. backed out of the suspension agreement, saying in April that "the agreement has failed to protect U.S. tomato growers from unfairly priced Mexican imports," adding that "this action will allow U.S. tomato growers to compete fairly in the marketplace.
"We have to compete with foreign labor forces that are much than they are here," Ruhlig said.
Both Robert and Everette say costs come from importing workers, using the federal H-2A program. Growers in Mexico are able to charge less because labor costs less.
"They work very hard, they deserve every penny that they get, but it’s a legal process that we bring these workers in for, and it’s a very expensive process," Ruhlig said.
"I hire around 200-250 every summer. I have to pay them $22 an hour," Leitz said. "And I’ve been to Mexico a few times, they pay their people 10-$14 a day. Not an hour, per day. From the gate, I'm $8-$9 behind on a 25-pound box in labor.
Right now, a pound of tomatoes is about $1.70. The 21 percent tariff could cause a 10 percent jump in prices, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Both growers say right now, Michigan consumers won't see much of a price increase because we're in local tomato season. If we see an increase, it could happen in the off-season.
"If we don’t have them down in the southeastern part of the US, then we'll typically have to go out either to California or Mexico," Ruhlig said. "You have to carry the full line for our customers. They always need a tomato. It might not be a local product, but there might be something from somewhere else."
This tomato tariff is separate from a slew of other tariffs going into effect on Mexico and a number of other countries on August 1.
