It’s a . . ? It’s a Brown Tomato

It’s a brown tomato.  It came in a plastic box with half a dozen confreres at my local Wal-Mart in Mexico City.  Inside it’s still brownish.  Tastes fine.  Disconcerting, a bit.  It was new to me.

But here’s the back story on the demand for these tomatoes from the Wall Street Journal. (Thanks to Sonia Banuelos on FB for the link).

And what’s it doing in Mexico City?  Well on the plastic box, where it’s described as the kumato, the “simply unique BROWN tomato” we learn that its a product of Mexico, thanks to Sunset Produce, Kingsville, Ontario.

Go to their website and you see mini kumatos on the front page.  And you learn that this four-generation family business has 1400 acres of vegetables (many organic) under glass.  Do you know how much that is?  It’s about 2.3 miles by one mile, perhaps more.

Not all in one place, of course.  Besides Canada, they are in the US, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatamala, Nicaragua, and Panama, and, of course, Mexico.  And in Mexico their distribution center is in Irapuato, in my former home state, Guanajuato.  Big, big farming there. Big foreign investment.

A story in the Mexican newspaper Reforma on Thursday 13th May reports that Mexico is now the world leader in the export of fruits and vegetables (I need to check this).  But it is top in top in avocado, second in papaya, lime, chile, and peppers, third in mangoes, oranges and guavas, fourth in grapefruit and asparagus.  Fruit production has risen 17% in the last ten years, vegetables nearly 10%.

Mexican consumption has declined slightly from 180 kilos a year to 176 kilos.

So that’s the story of the brown tomato.  Want heirloom tomatoes.  Someone will provide them for you.

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