Will Taco Bell respond by just not buying tomatoes from Florida any more?
No. Florida is the leading producer of tomatoes in the United States. According to the Florida Tomato Committee, Florida tomatoes account for 95% of all US grown tomatoes eaten by Americans from October to June, and 45% of all tomatoes consumed in the US year-round are Florida tomatoes. You simply can’t do business on the scale Taco Bell and Yum do business and not purchase your tomatoes from Florida, particularly given the prohibitive transportation costs of bringing tomatoes from Florida’s next biggest competitor, Mexico, to the major East Coast markets.
