Local farmers blame tariffs, immigration crackdown for business losses, wasted crops

With tariff talks top of mind, South Florida farmers say they’re in trouble. Crops are rotting on the vine and they’re blaming the ongoing trade wars and immigration changes. What does this mean for the future of our food? 7’s Heather Walker investigates.

Perfectly good tomatoes are being plowed over — instead of picked. It’s a sad scene happening in South Florida.

Heather Moehling, President, Miami-Dade County Farm Bureau: “You can’t even afford to pick them right now. Between the cost of the labor and the inputs that goes in, it’s more cost-effective for the farmers to just plow them right now.”

Heather Moehling understands the struggles that farmers are facing right now. She is part of the family that runs the Homestead produce stand, “Robert Is Here.”

She says farmers used to get $16 for a box of tomatoes. It’s now down to $3-or-$4.

Heather Moehling: “Just a horrible price and some of that has been from what Mexico is bringing into the country and some of that has been just from the threat of the tariffs.”

Farmers say President Trump’s tariffs and the threat of tariffs have caused thousands of acres of tomatoes to go to waste because the price to pick and pack them costs more than what the tomatoes are selling for this year.

Tony Dimare, President Dimare Homestead: “It costs you close to over $10, close to $11 a box to break even, so if you are selling tomatoes for $3, $4. $5 dollars, you can figure out the losses.”

Tony Dimare with Dimare Homestead says his company has experienced huge losses. He won’t disclose how much, but says South Florida farmers are hurting.

Tony Dimare: “The Mexican industry exported, in some cases, double and triple the daily volumes to beat being subject to the 25 percent tariff in February and March and the 10 percent tariffs in April. That just devastated our markets in the U.S.”

Those tariffs never went into effect. But the damage was done. When Mexico flooded the market with cheap tomatoes, local farmers couldn’t compete and didn’t even bother picking their fields.

Now the U.S. government has plans to put an anti-dumping duty on fresh Mexican tomatoes starting in July to try and prevent that from happening again.

And it’s not just tomatoes from Mexico that’s hurting our farmers. South Florida sends a lot of different produce to Canada, which puts a 25 percent tariff on our crops.

Tony Dimare: “Another watermelon grower in the state called me about concern and question on the tariff. His customers in Canada, which for the Florida watermelon growers in the spring time is a big market, had told him that they, because of the tariff and the added cost to Florida watermelons, they wanted to bypass sourcing Florida watermelons for this spring as long as the 25 percent tariff was in place. In fact, they were going to source their watermelon needs from Mexico.”

Immigration changes are also taking a toll. Many pickers are afraid to go to work.

Homestead farm worker: “Many workers have left, others are leaving now.”

This man agreed to talk to us if we agreed to hide his identity. He’s worried about being deported.

Homestead farm worker: “A lot of people are really afraid and sometimes they come, sometimes they don’t come and the harvest is lost because it cannot be harvested, so that’s why so much produce is lost.”

Heather Walker: “What’s the feeling from farmers right now? How are you feeling?”

Tony Dimare: “Not very good, to be honest with you.”

And with the current policies on tariffs and immigration, Florida farmers are not planting a secure future.

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