Miami, Jan. 15 - 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 field-worker wages, 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. (MCD) and Taco Bell owner Yum Brands Inc. (YUM).
Those agreements require the companies pay a penny more per pound for the tomatoes they buy from Florida farms. Farmers would then pass the extra money through to field workers, although 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. (BKC), 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 2008-09 season. The letter doesn't say whether Burger King would move its supply chain out of Florida altogether.
Florida supplies 80% 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 that 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 farm workers would see their pay nearly double.
"Instead of really dealing with the issues at hand, which are wages and working conditions for farm workers, they are trying to run away from dealing with them," Perkins said. "If there weren't any problems for wages and working conditions, there wouldn't be any reason for them to turn elsewhere - or even look into turning elsewhere."
Burger King does have support from the Florida tomato growers association.
Earlier this season, the group, which represents nearly all tomato farms, threatened to levy $100,000 fines on members who participated in the McDonald's and Yum Brands deals. As a result, no Florida farmers are participating in the deals this year.