One Hot Tomato: Roma Rules in Japan.

Technically speaking, Italy is not the birthplace of spaghetti. The pasta traces its origins back to China. But, ah, that luscious sauce of basil, garlic, oil and tomatoes. Now that's Italian innovation at its best!

And Japanese consumers are falling hard for Italy's tomato-based cuisine.

"We think the Roma will be in great demand both by Italian restaurants in Japan and consumers who want to try Italian cooking at home," said Ed Beckman, president of the California Tomato Commission. "This will help with our target market of the food service sector that prefers the U.S. tomato's superior slicing qualities."

The Commission estimates that the total export value of U.S. tomato shipments to Japan exceeded $800,000 in 1998. Its analysts predict that expanding the U.S. varieties eligible for export may have pushed this market up to $2 million for 1999.

Viva La Roma

FAS staff in Japan are hearing from local traders that U.S. Roma tomatoes will be hot in the expanding fresh cooking tomato market. One reason is Roma tomatoes are not produced regularly in Japan--as of yet. Recently, some Japanese growers began planting cooking-type tomatoes, a switch from the traditional varieties.

But their production volume is so small that only one or two specialized Tokyo stores sell fresh cooking tomatoes.

Imports of fresh cooking tomatoes from other world suppliers are almost nil as well. As demand grows, however, competition will, too.

Fresh Beats Canned in Japan

The Italian cuisine boom has already fueled the growth in canned tomatoes. In 1991, Japanese consumers bought about 20,000 metric tons of processed whole tomatoes. By 1998, the total was 80,000 tons.

But Japanese chefs and home-cooking consumers prefer fresh to canned tomatoes if available. Competitively priced fresh Roma tomatoes could be an attractive alternative to the canned variety if consumers know where to find them.

How Much for This Roma?

While price is hard to predict, the current retail price of regular cooking tomatoes-field-grown and vine ripened-is between 83 cents and $1.25 per pouhnd. (That converts to between 100 and 150 yen).

The average price of imported canned whole tomatoes is approximately 75 cents per kilogram. Retail prices of canned whole tomatoes are $1.41 to $1.66 for a 400-gram can.

The author is a Senior Agricultural Attache with FAS at the Agricultural Affairs Office in Tokyo, Japan.

Choosing Cherry Tomatoes

Japan's newly opened tomato market also includes U.S. cherry tomatoes-a $380-million industry. But there is competition, especially from South Korea. Tokyo traders caution U.S. cherry tomatoes must be of high quality and priced right. They recommend marketing in fall, winter and spring, when nearby producers may be out of season and prices are higher.