Tomato-processing industry in Kings holding steady

If you work in Kings County's tomato processing industry, chances are your job is safe: Processors expect to do about the same amount of business as last year.

"I don't anticipate any downturn or decline in production," said Lisa Crift, executive vice president of administration for SK Foods.

The company's Lemoore processing facility, a new plant run by J.G. Boswell Co. and a facility run by Del Monte Foods together employ an estimated 2,600 local residents to handle tomatoes every year.

That's a big slice of the Kings County economy. And it doesn't look like the recession will take much of a bite out of it.

Processors report that food service bulk orders are down, but retail sales are growing as people use tomato products in their home cooking.

"Hopefully consumption stays up. Tomatoes are a good food source," said Bret Ferguson, chairman of the California Tomato Growers Association and a farmer in the Huron area.

If there are any job losses, they're likely to be on the grower side rather than the processor side.

Westside growers, particularly those in the giant Westlands Water District, are anticipating little or no water deliveries from the Sacramento Delta this year. Recent sunny, warm weather has done nothing to help a snowpack that was 80 percent of normal on March 1.

"There are still concerns about water," said Mike Montna, president of the California Tomato Growers Association.

But growers planted more tomatoes in anticipation of a good market, according to Ferguson. That's likely to lead to about the same amount of acreage planted in California this year as in 2008 -- producing approximately 12 million tons.

That's less than the 13.3 million tons projected by the California League of Food Processors. But it should be enough to sustain one of Kings County's biggest industries.

When it was announced that Westlands growers would be receiving no surface water from the Central Valley Project, many growers were already planning to use well water to sustain their tomatoes, said Chris Woolf, a partner in Huron-based Los Gatos Tomato Products.

The $80-per-ton price -- it was $70 last year -- has helped keep plenty of acreage in production, according to Woolf, who called tomatoes an "attractive crop."

"We haven't seen a decline in demand for tomato paste," Woolf said.

Demand over the last five years has increased steadily for tomato-based Mexican food products as well as pasta sauces, Crift said.

That means tomato processing is one segment of Kings County's economy that likely won't be contributing to a local unemployment rate of nearly 16 percent.

"It's very significant for a single occupation. It's probably more significant this year. All jobs are critical," said John Lehn, CEO of Kings Economic Development Corporation.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2432.

(March 18, 2009)