Forget About Taste, Florida Says, These Tomatoes Are Just Too Ugly to Ship: A brand of specialty tomato called the UglyRipe, distinguishable by its uneven crevices and ridges, has been deemed too homely to leave home.
the lush, vine-ripened UglyRipes have what the industry calls a “cat face,” full of uneven crevices and ridges. The Florida Tomato Committee, a trade group that controls sales and shipments of round tomatoes, has determined that the brand does not meet its standards for shape, lack of blemishes and other defects.
“The marketing order has nothing to do with taste,” said Skip Jonas, the committee's compliance officer. “Taste is subjective.”Joe Procacci, the chairman of Procacci Brothers of Philadelphia, whose subsidiaries grow the UglyRipes in Florida, contends that the committee is afraid of the competition from a tomato whose sales have tripled in the past few years, especially in winter.
“They're keeping the consumer from a tasty tomato,” said Mr. Procacci, who has become a very public David pitted against the $500 million Florida tomato industry. Never mind that Mr. Procacci is on the committee himself and grows about 8 percent of the Florida round tomatoes.
Until a year ago, the committee granted an exemption to the UglyRipes, which lost $2.8 million in 2003 because they could not be shipped out of state.
After Procacci Brothers reapplied for an exemption last month, the committee wrote: “These requirements serve to ensure customer satisfaction and improve grower returns. Not holding the UglyRipe tomato to these same standards defies orderly marketing and provides it unfair, undue marketing advantage.”
The committee also challenged Mr. Procacci's contention that his tomatoes are heirlooms, an old-fashioned variety that is not the same as a commercial round tomato, and is therefore exempt from the regulations. To determine its genetics, the UglyRipe variety is participating in the federal Department of Agriculture's new identity preservation program, which is intended in part to mediate disputes of this kind.
have you ever eaten an uglyripe?