Supply Squeeze
Spaghetti Sauce Is Under Threat as Water Crisis Slams Tomatoes
Tomato paste, ketchup prices surge as drought shrinks California crop.
Processing tomatoes on the vine in Winters, Calif.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Tomatoes are getting squeezed.
California leads the world in production of processing tomatoes — the variety that gets canned and used in commercial kitchens to make some of the most popular foods. The problem is the worst drought in 1,200 years is forcing farmers to grapple with a water crisis that’s undermining the crop, threatening to further push up prices from salsa to spaghetti sauce.