As essential in cooking as mustard, tomato paste should soon see a falling price due to a boom in Chinese production.
Without it, beef bourguignon would not have that little extra thing that makes all the difference, without it either we would not save a dish of hastily cooked shells when the youngest child makes a face… In the meatballs meat, to make an American-style monkfish or even essential for tielle Sétoise, tomato concentrate is essential for countless recipes as this intensely flavored paste gives this fruity twist and depth to the flavors of a dish . It is logically found in Italian and Spanish preparations, but also in traditional French recipes, such as stews. In short, it is a basic ingredient just like flour, salt or mustard.
Usually, when we discuss the issue of food prices, we generally talk about increases. For once, it's quite the opposite. Because we have never exported so much tomato paste in the world. According to Tomato News, the magazine of the International Mediterranean Tomato Processing Association (AMITOM), global exports over the last twelve months, to the end of last November, are at a level never seen before. We are talking precisely about 3.760 million tonnes. If we know the production of Italy and Greece in this area, it is especially those of Chile, the United States, Iran and China which are prolific. Over the past twelve months, exports have increased by 15%, 2%, 76% and 31% respectively.
And this is only the beginning of a movement whose consequence should be a drastic drop in the prices of tomato paste, as the professional magazine Réussir points out. The reason: the Chinese are becoming the champions of tomato paste. And it’s not because it’s an ingredient they need in their cooking, quite the contrary. In 2024, it is estimated that the processing of tomatoes by the Middle Kingdom should reach 11 million tonnes. Today, we are more around six to eight million tonnes. Only 20% of this production is consumed by the Chinese. Everything else is dedicated to export.
It is the context of increasing raw material prices which explains the appetite of Chinese producers for tomato processing; the Chinese population preferring to consume fresh tomatoes. “Farmers are more motivated to plant tomatoes. The world is experiencing inflation. Prices of raw materials, especially tomato products, are on the rise“, explains the Chinese Food Import and Export Chamber of Commerce (CFNA). For his part, the owner of a Chinese organic tomato company told RFI: “previously, the main producing regions were in Europe and particularly in the Netherlands. They produced with glass greenhouses, and following Dutch and Israeli models (…) Today with the energy crisis, Europeans produce less and with the unrest in Israel, they can no longer meet demand. China therefore becomes the world's leading producer. We benefit from an abundant, good quality workforce, across a wide range of latitudes, making it an important area for primary production. China now represents 70% of global production“.
Slide: The 5 unsuspected benefits of tomatoes
