- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
The U.S. government said Monday it is immediately placing a 17% duty on most fresh Mexican tomatoes after negotiations ended without an agreement to avert the tariff.
The U.S. government said Monday it is immediately placing a 17% duty on most fresh Mexican tomatoes after negotiations ended without an agreement to avert the tariff.
The US has plenty of areas with a shitton of sun in the winter. Very dry areas, like southern Spain, or Israel, produce year round and with little available water, but well managed.
The Netherlands produce vegetables, competitive for export, with half the sun or heat.
Vegetables are one of the few sectors that can be repatriated in a short time through tariffs.
When you get into tree crops and such is when you have the same problem as with factories, years until production.
Given that tomatoes suffer when nighttime temperatures start going below 55°F (13°C), there is pretty much nowhere in the continental US where they can be grown successfully year-round without some sort of environmental control or protection.
Yes they can. See Almeria, Spain. Similar to Arizona/NM weather, and as dry. Also, the Dutch do it, in climate controlled greenhouses, price competitive.
It can definitely be done.
The temperature in Almeria has never gone below freezing in all of recorded history, which is not the case anywhere in Arizona or New Mexico. Even Yuma, AZ goes well below freezing sometimes, and winter averages are well below the comfort threshold for tomatoes, where in Almeria average lows are warmer. And the summer highs in the US southwest (tomatoes also suffer and will not set fruit when temps are consistently above 95° (35°C) blow Almeria and everywhere in Europe out of the water.
I’m not saying you can’t grow in greenhouses and still be able to afford tomatoes, but there’s no situation in which growing in a greenhouse doesn’t cost more than growing outdoors in a suitable climate. Mexico has that suitable climate year-round, and the US does not, and as a result this tariff on Mexican tomatoes is going to significantly raise tomato prices in the US.
I imagine you have searched for data, and have looked up Almería (city) not the province. The city is on the shore. Almeria province is hilly. As soon as you go some few hundred meters up climate becomes way more extreme.
For most vegetables, passive methods, such as greenhouses, with shade systems and ventilation, these extremes can be reduced.
That’s what they elsewhere call “greenhouse”.
Yes. Greenhouses add significant cost, that’s my point.
Still cost effective