The processing tomato harvest is underway in Essex County and Chatham-Kent.
But, the sight of tomato wagons lining up outside the Highbury Canco plant are about two weeks later than normal.
Ontario Processing Vegetable Grower board member Tom Keller says the cold spring weather delayed the harvest.
"The early varieties are the ones that were damaged by the storms in the Leamington area and the flooding," he says. "You have spots where the plants have drowned out completely, so that cuts into your yield."
Keller believes the weather was more harsh in Essex County this spring than it was in Chatham-Kent, which will likely lead to better yields in the east.
Keller says the number of farmers growing processing tomatoes is down by about 30, compared to years before Leamington's Heinz plant closed its doors.
