Da den US-Farmern die Erntehelfer genommen werden, verrotten die Früchte ungeerntet auf den Feldern. Unterpflügen ist billiger. Zudem gab es vor Inkrafttreten der Zölle eine Tomatenflut aus Mexiko.
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Trump's deportation of harvesters despair makes farmers despair
Since the US farmers are taken away from the harvesters, the fruits rot unreturned in the fields. Subploughing is cheaper. In addition, there was a tomato surge from Mexico before the tariffs come into force.
We., 11. June 2025, 6:55 pm
Reading time: 3 minutes
Tomato harvest in the USA. Currently, a box can only be sold for 3 to 4 dollars. 11 dollars would be necessary for the cost recovery. Many Farmer therefore plow down instead of reaping. (Image source: MAGO / SuperStock)
Tony DiMare's family has a good 1,600 hectares in Florida and California, where
tomatoes are grown. Currently, however, it is bad about the fruits, they rot in the field and are being underworked.
However, the reason is not the weather or diseases, but the crisis that
US President Donald Trump has triggered. Speaking to a television station in Miami, DiMare said that customs and immigration policies are forcing farmers to abandon their cultivated areas.
Already in January, he had warned that Trump's crackdown on migrants will strongly hit farmers who depend on harvest workers. “We need to secure our borders in the south and north, but we need workers in this country,” the tomato grower also told the Financial Post. The deportations destroyed the agricultural workforce.
Half of seasonal workers are illegal in the country
According to Farmonaut, an agricultural technology company, around 50% of farm workers in the US are migrants without residence securities, including qualified foremen and machine operators.
Since the Trump administration continues the mass deportation of migrants without residence papers, thousands of harsh helpers are now missing in the fields. And so the fruits spoil. On TV, an unrecognizable worker described that thousands of migrants leave Florida every day. “Many are very afraid, and sometimes they still come to work, sometimes not,” he said. “The harvest is lost because it cannot be brought in.”
Customs disrupts traditional supply chains
The labour shortage also means that farmers in Florida have to pay more for their workforce. At the same time, they receive less money for their products due to Trump's tariff policy.
From January to April, Trump’s threatened tariffs led Mexican suppliers to double their tomato exports to the US or even leak – even before tariffs came into force.
As a result, the US market was inundated with Mexican tomatoes. For the farmers in Florida, the wholesale price for a crate of tomatoes dropped from 16 dollars to 3 to 4 dollars. According to DiMare, tomato farmers need about 10 to 11 dollars per box to reach the break-even point.
Subploughing is cheaper
“You can’t even afford the harvest at the moment,” said Heather Moehling, President of the Miami-Dade County Farm Bureau. “In view of labour costs and the operating resources used, it is cheaper for farmers to now simply plow them.”
Not only tomato farmers in Florida feel the effects. Canada has claimed an 25% tariff on US water melon for Trump's tariffs on Canadian products. DiMare knows a watermelon farmer who has lost Canadian customers to Mexican watermelon suppliers.
Consumers need to prepare for higher food costs
Farmonaut points out that the impact of tariffs and immigration policies on farmers will also have an impact on food trade. If US farmers do not have enough workers for the harvest, Americans will have to buy more imported products and pay more due to the customs duties.
The Food Policy Center at Hunter College in New York City warns that the resulting rise in food prices will fuel inflation – “which weighs on household budgets across the country and, in particular, meets families in areas with high food insecurity.”
While farmers have little choice but to hope for an end to the political unrest, consumers should prepare to reduce these costs, they say.