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No Florida Tomatoes For Burger King Fare?

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By LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ, The Associated Press

Published: January 16, 2008

MIAMI - Burger King is telling suppliers it may stop buying tomatoes from southwestern Florida, where farmworkers have fought to get the second-largest hamburger chain to pay more for its produce and help boost wages of fieldworkers, according to a letter obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has tried for more than a year to get Burger King Corp. to join deals signed by rivals McDonald's Corp. and Taco Bell owner Yum Brands Inc.

Those agreements require the companies pay a penny more a pound for the tomatoes they buy from Florida farms. Farmers would then pass the extra money through to fieldworkers, though the agreements are on hold after growers balked at participating this year.

Burger King has refused to join the deals and repeatedly insinuated the coalition was taking the extra money, even after Yum Brands and several human rights groups dismissed the allegations.

So the Miami-based chain, owned by Burger King Holdings Inc., is now asking suppliers to plan for the chain to possibly buy tomatoes elsewhere.

In the Dec. 18, 2007, letter to suppliers, Burger King Vice President Steven Grover wrote: "In an effort to protect the BKC brand and supply system from disruption, we are developing contingency plans to assure our long term supply of tomatoes."
Grover went on to ask the suppliers to "submit contingency plans for the possibility that we would choose not to purchase tomatoes grown on farms in the Immokalee, Florida, region."

If it happens, the change would not begin until the 2008-2009 season. The letter does not say whether Burger King would move its supply chain out of Florida altogether.

Florida supplies 80 percent of the nation's domestic fresh tomatoes between Thanksgiving and February, but the number of domestically produced winter tomatoes has declined in recent years due mostly to imports from Mexico and Canada.

Burger King spokeswoman Denise Wilson confirmed the letter's authenticity and said the chain is always looking at contingency plans. She emphasized Burger King buys from repackers in Immokalee, not directly from farmers there.

Coalition spokeswoman Julia Perkins called the letter "defensive and not thought out."

She said the group's campaign has never been limited to Immokalee but to the working conditions and pay for workers across the state.

Florida tomato pickers earn about 45 cents per 32-pound bucket.

If all purchasers of Florida tomatoes agreed to the penny deal, the state's mostly migrant farmworkers would see their pay nearly double.

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