News emerged last week of another threat to one of Portugal’s leading industries. A transatlantic trade agreement being negotiated between Brussels and the US is pivotal to the survival of the nation’s €250 million tomato processing sector. If protection is not built into the agreement, Portugal – along with the rest of Europe – is set to lose hands down.
“This is more than a real danger,” Miguel Cambezes, general secretary of AIT, the tomato manufacturers association, warned. “It is almost unavoidable given the enormous power disparity between California and Portugal’s tomato processing sectors.”
At issue is the abolition of tariff protections affecting imports, which would inevitably benefit the US. Production costs are much lower on the other side of the Atlantic, thus without protection Europe’s industry would be decimated as its higher production costs would price it out of the market.
Portugal is actually the world’s third largest processed tomato producer, exporting 95% of production – but this won’t save it, warns Cambezes, unless price tariffs are maintained.
Data shows that in 2012 the US exported 74,400 tonnes of concentrated tomato to Europe and imported 3,900 tonnes from Europe. That year, the US exported 19 times more concentrated tomato to the EU than it imported from it.
