According to figures published by Morning Star, California's processing capacity has been stable for the past four years, and is close to one quarter of the global operations intentions announced for the 2024 season.
According to figures presented by leading US and global processor The Morning Star Company, installed tomato processing capacity in California has shown little variation over the past four years. Published data indicates a total theoretical capacity in 2023 ranging from 11.8 million tonnes (metric) for a 12-week season to 12.6 million t for a 13-week season. These quantities have been virtually stable since Olam and Unilever ceased operations after the 2019 season (see additional information at the end of this article) and well above the processing intentions published by the Californian industry last March, of 10.5 million metric tonnes.
Unsurprisingly, Morning Star's sites in Williams and Los Banos, along with Liberty Packing's plant in Santa Nella, accounted for a very large share of California's capacity last year, with nearly 46% of the state's total. Ingomar and JG Boswell were virtually equal, with 12%-13% each, ahead of Los Gatos and Campbell Soup, each holding around 8% of Californian total capacity. Pacific Coast Producers, Toma-Tek, Hunt Foods (Conagra) and Del Monte shared the remaining 14%.
But the distribution of industrial capacity in California has changed radically over the past few decades. What could be called "self-producers" accounted for a large majority in the early 90s. These companies produced tomato pastes mainly for internal use. But they now account for only around 12% of the total. Conversely, companies owned by tomato growers and private companies producing and selling tomato pastes on the open market, which were relatively marginal thirty years ago, now account for 37% and 51% respectively of the total Californian processing capacity.
Some complementary data
For further details about capacity, consumption, production costs, prices and other figures characteristic of the Californian industry, click here.
The updated 2024 edition of MorningStar's Tomato Paste and Processed Tomato Statistics brochure is available by clicking here.
Evolution and composition of California's processing capacity, by company.
Source: morningstarco.com
