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 contract wars and immigration changes What does this mean for the future of our food 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 for a box of tomatoes It s now down to -or- Heather Moehling Just a horrible price and selected of that has been from what Mexico is bringing into the country and selected 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 close to a box to break even so if you are selling tomatoes for 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 particular cases double and triple the daily volumes to beat being subject to the percent tariff in February and March and the 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 arena with cheap tomatoes local farmers couldn t compete and didn t even bother picking their fields Now the U S ruling body 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 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 arena had stated him that they because of the tariff and the added cost to Florida watermelons they craved to go around sourcing Florida watermelons for this spring as long as the percent tariff was in place In fact they were going to source their watermelon demands from Mexico Immigration changes are also taking a toll Plenty of pickers are afraid to go to work Homestead farm worker Several 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 Heather Walker News CONTACT INVESTIGATES - -CLUE - -CLUE Investigates wsvn com