Mexican tomato exports suffer in scare

SINALOA, Mexico, June 17 (UPI) -- Mexican tomato producers say they're being unfairly targeted as the source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds of people in the United States.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it has narrowed its investigation of the source of the outbreak to Mexico and southern Florida, which supplied the bulk of the suspect red plum, red Roma and round red tomatoes in April. But Mexican producers say they're suffering the economic consequences before the facts are in, The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

Mexican farmers told the newspaper they're losing millions of dollars in export sales and tomatoes are rotting in warehouses as U.S. consumers have reacted to the salmonella scare.

"This situation is terrible," Antonio Ruiz, general manager of Agricola Caborita, told the Times, which says the Sinaloa, Mexico, company sells tomatoes to the U.S. market. "We have hundreds of canceled orders … We're worried and angry because we know that our product isn't to blame, yet we're paying the consequences."

Even though the FDA hasn't banned imports of Mexican tomatoes, the country's industry is suffering. It exported about 800,000 tons of tomatoes to the United States last year, the newspaper said.