There's no tomato bruschetta on the menu at a Bay of Plenty Italian restaurant, while a grilled tomato on your cooked Sunday breakfast will cost more than $5, as fresh tomato prices continue to soar.

Even canned tomatoes are off the menu at the Tauranga Foodbank, which says people are so desperate for the pantry staple that they appealed to the community for help.

It is not just restaurants seeing red over the price of tomatoes. Shoppers are baulking at the high cost in supermarkets, where basic fresh tomatoes cost anything from $15 a kilo, with other varieties costing as much as $50 a kilo.

The humble tomato is the essence of Italian cuisine, says Amrinder Dhillon, manager of Salva D'Or Italian restaurant in Tauranga, but the rising cost has meant the restaurant has had to increase prices and adapt the menu.

'Bruschetta is a favourite, which is tomato, basil and garlic on thick bread, but we have had to change the recipe and use peppers or pesto instead,” says Amrinder.

The restaurant uses fresh tomatoes as the base for both its pasta and pizza sauces.

'A Neapolitan pasta tomato sauce or a simple margarita pizza would have been simple dishes in the past,” he said, 'but now they are too expensive to make. As an Italian restaurant we still need to use tomatoes."

Amrinder says the restaurant put their prices up three months ago but was still absorbing the cost.

'We could only increase the dishes by a couple of dollars – otherwise it affects customers.”

Tomatoes are usually served with a cooked breakfast, but now they could cost you an extra $5 or more. Photo: Ella Bates-Hermans/Stuff.

Cafés are also feeling the squeeze, with an extra tomato on your Sunday brunch costing $5 or more.

Mark Gulliver, owner of The Raft café in central Tauranga, says the hospitality industry is under pressure in general from rising food prices, and has had to soak up the cost. The café currently charges $5 to upgrade any breakfast with a slow roasted tomato.

'Tomatoes are particularly exorbitant,” says Mark, 'and while suppliers may keep blaming Covid, I think to myself it shouldn't cost any more to grow a tomato in New Zealand. It does affect us – you can adjust the menu or adapt dishes, but unfortunately it comes down to user pays, and we are serving some dishes at cost.”

Mark says while he expected tomato prices to go down during the summer months, he thought they would not go back to pre-Covid levels.

Elizabeth Café co-owner Connie Richards says rising food prices forced menu pricing to increase.

'It's the only way we can combat and absorb the constant increases given to us by suppliers,” says Connie.

The cafe's ‘Big Brekkie' is $27, and includes bacon, sausage, mushrooms, beans, eggs, rosti and tomato relish, but no fresh tomato. A grilled tomato will cost you an additional $5.50.
The price of tomatoes has made them a luxury item in restaurants, say restaurant and cafe owners who have to absorb the cost or increase menu prices.

The price of tomatoes has made them a luxury item in restaurants, say restaurant and cafe owners who have to absorb the cost or increase menu prices. Image: Ella Bates-Hermans/Stuff.

'When it comes to spikes in prices on individual items, we can't really change menu prices,” says Connie.

'We just have to absorb the costs and hope the prices drop. The chefs would definitely be much more mindful with ordering and use of tomatoes in dishes that are in the cabinet and change daily, but there is not much we can do. Here's hoping the prices go down.”

There is even a dire shortage of canned tomatoes at Tauranga Foodbank, says manager Nicki Goodwin. The Foodbank has appealed to the public for donations.

'Normally they would be an item we get a lot of as donations, as they are low cost. We like to include them in our boxes as they are essential for many recipes – especially when people need to cook on a budget. But we've not had enough tomato cans recently.”

While the foodbank mostly relies on community donations, it does buy essential items, but even canned tomatoes bust the budget.

'We used to be able to buy a pallet of canned tomatoes at just 70 cents per can,” says Nicki, 'but now it is double that price, which means we cannot afford to buy them for people.”

Greengrocer David Stewart says that tomatoes were expensive as they were out of season, and there was a shortage of imported tomatoes.

'In winter we would usually be selling tomatoes imported from Australia or other countries,” says David, 'but high freight and fuel costs have affected imports. Local growers here have also been affected by the weather.”

In supermarkets, some tomatoes are reaching prices never seen before. When surveying prices online on August 8, New World was selling fresh loose tomatoes for $16.99 a kg, Red Truss tomatoes at $22.99 a kg, Pam's vine tomatoes at $40 a kg, and Beekist Angel Tomatoes at $49.95 a kg.

Countdown's fresh produce tomatoes were $14.99 a kg, with pre packed tomatoes at $18 a kg.

Pak'nSave's Sunburst Classic Tomatoes were $37.50 a kg, but its loose red tomatoes were the cheapest of the supermarkets surveyed at $14.49 a kg.

This means tomatoes have more than doubled in price since the beginning of the year, when they were selling for $6.49 per kilogram at Countdown and $7.59 at New World – although tomatoes would normally be cheaper in season, says David.

Tomatoes have tripled in price since 2020 when they were on average $3.99 a kilogram.

Bernie Mitchell grows her own tomatoes and dries them in her car before freezing them.
Photo: Supplied.

Higher prices are making shoppers avoid tomatoes. Christchurch woman Bernie Mitchell says she would not buy them at the current price.

'I am frugal to the core!,” says Bernie. 'I would never buy tomatoes at this time of year. Most years I grow enough to preserve and dry, but I will buy them when they are cheap during the summer as well. I always live out of my garden in the summer and preserve enough food to tide me over the winter.”

Bernie says she freezes whole tomatoes in the summer, and also makes her own tomato sauce, tomato relish and pizza sauce.

She even uses her car to make sun dried tomatoes when tomatoes are cheaper, putting them on an oven tray which she places on the dashboard of her car to dry.

'Roll up all the windows and park in the sunniest spot. Start first thing in the morning and bring the tray inside at sunset.”

After two days she freezes them, so she can use them all year round.

Annemarie Quill/Stuff.