After several years of global shortage, last year’s bumper crop shifted the market into a surplus environment. Processors around the world planned to pack less in 2010, but the numbers look nowhere near low enough to balance supply.

The tough planting and growing season should decrease the crop even further; but until the final numbers are in, there is no way to tell if supply will be balanced.

In the United States, tomato processors moved a record 12.6 million fresh equivalent tons of product from their warehouses, but still had a record inventory as of June 1, according to the California League of Food Processors’ Stockon‐Hand report.

With more than half of California’s crop to be harvested into the unreliable fall months, any surplus will shrink but it’s unlikely to disappear.