Tomatoes (round)
~$21.63–$24.88/carton · as of 2026-07-16 Hold
Tomatoes (round) trades on a wholesale reference price that moves week to week; right now it's reading down across public sources (as of 2026-07-16). To see the live number, the typical range, and where your own price sits, open the reading below — then check your last invoice against it.
What is the cheapest month to buy tomatoes (round)?
The cheapest month for tomatoes (round) is usually March, and the priciest is December — a clear seasonal window: about 47% cheaper at its March low than at its December peak, across the multi-year public history (USDA, BLS, FRED). That is calendar co-occurrence, not a forecast; read it against your own invoice.
Why it matters
Tomatoes (round) trades per carton as a wholesale reference. That is the market's figure, not the delivered price at your door — your invoice adds freight, the vendor's margin, and your volume. Always compare in the same unit.
The price moves with forces upstream of your kitchen — chiefly diesel. That is an association, not a direct cause, but when those climb, tomatoes (round) tends to follow. So a higher invoice is not always the vendor's doing: sometimes the whole market moved.
Tomatoes (round) is seasonal: a high read today can ease as supply returns. If the range is expensive but the direction points down, holding the dish a few weeks can beat re-pricing it.
For category context: fresh fruits & vegetables as a whole moved -49.4% over the window (BLS PPI, fresh fruits & vegetables). That's the broad produce market's direction — not tomatoes (round)'s own read, which is above.
Notable price events
Across the ~25.2 years of public data we track, the wholesale reference for tomatoes moved farthest from its normal range on these dates. Each figure is the peak versus its own ~1-year local median — a market move, not a vendor markup.
What this means for your kitchen
Tomatoes: a highly volatile line. Don't anchor it to a printed menu price you can't revisit for months: keep headroom, and when the reading runs hot, feature it less or trim the portion before you eat the margin. Its big moves have typically held ~3 months before easing — plan for that, not for a bounce next week.
And the read that matters most: when a spike here lines up with a documented market event (below), a high invoice is the market — hold your price or re-engineer the plate, don't burn the vendor relationship. When the reference is calm but your price isn't, that's the conversation worth having.
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Nov 2004 ▲ 182% above normal
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Apr 2026 ▲ 174% above normal
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Dec 2014 ▲ 154% above normal
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Apr 2011 ▲ 145% above normal
Documented around this time Northwestern Mexico hard freeze (February 2011)
What happened · sources
An unusually severe freeze on the night of Feb 3-4, 2011 reached deep into northwestern Mexico's winter-vegetable region (Sinaloa, around Culiacan and Los Mochis) — reported as the area's worst cold since 1957 — coinciding with freezes in Florida and Texas. Industry notices described crop losses in the range of 80-100% on affected fields of tomatoes, bell and chili peppers, cucumbers, squash and eggplant, with reduced shipments to the US and Canada expected into early April. Mexico is a major winter supplier of these crops to the US.
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Nov 2022 ▲ 128% above normal
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Sep 2006 ▲ 114% above normal
Other documented events for tomatoes
Documented around this time Florida winter freeze (January 2010)
What happened · sources
A prolonged early-January 2010 cold spell (Jan 2-13, 2010, one of the coldest 12-day periods on record for South Florida) brought several nights of sub-freezing temperatures across Florida, with lows in the mid-teens to low-20s F in growing regions. USDA NASS crop reports documented extensive damage to winter vegetable crops (including tomatoes and peppers), with some fields reported as total losses, and cold damage to the citrus crop; harvest was largely at a standstill during the event.
USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service · NOAA National Weather Service (Miami, FL) · Florida Climate Center, Florida State University
Documented around this time Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak - tomatoes and Mexican peppers (2008)
What happened · sources
CDC and FDA investigated a large multistate Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak (1,442+ reported illnesses across 43 states plus DC and Canada, 286 hospitalizations, 2 deaths; illness onsets April 10 to August 31, 2008). Jalapeno peppers, and to a lesser extent serrano peppers, traced to farms in Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, Mexico were identified as major sources; raw tomatoes were implicated early in the investigation and subject to a federal consumer warning (issued June 7, 2008; lifted July 17, 2008) before being cleared as a confirmed source.
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (MMWR) · New England Journal of Medicine
Price moves are detected from public history (USDA/BLS/FRED). Documented events come from our open, cited registry — shown as co-occurring context, never asserted as the cause. How events are picked.
How to use this reading
- Open the reading above and note the typical range and the date.
- Pull your last tomatoes (round) invoice, in the same unit.
- Below the range is a good deal; inside is normal; well above is a vendor conversation.
- Watch the direction over a few weeks before re-pricing a dish — one week is noise.
Costing a dish that uses tomatoes (round)? Use the Plate Cost Calculator.
Frequently asked
What does tomatoes (round) cost wholesale right now?
It moves week to week. The market read above shows the current typical range and the date behind it; read it against your own invoice.
What is the best time of year to buy tomatoes (round)?
The cheapest stretch for tomatoes (round) is usually around March, and the priciest around December, based on its multi-year public price history. That is a calendar pattern, not a forecast; read it against your invoice.
Why did my tomatoes (round) price jump?
It can be the whole market or a single vendor. The range tells you which: if your price lands inside the range, the market moved; well above the range is a vendor conversation. It tends to move with diesel — association, not direct cause.
What unit is tomatoes (round) priced in?
It trades per carton as a wholesale reference — not the delivered price you pay, so compare against your invoice in the same unit.
Am I overpaying for tomatoes (round)?
Place your own price on the typical range above. Below the range is a good deal; inside is normal; above the range is worth a vendor conversation.
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This is the market reference. To see whether your invoices track it, line by line, that's Muntin Ledger — your data, no language model.
Sourced: USDA Agricultural Marketing Service · U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — public data, via the live tool · what a cost index is