The United States is one of the world’s top producers of fresh tomatoes. However, the industry supply chain is not well understood with little attention in the literature. To attend to this literature gap and to better inform business decisions and policy making, it is crucial to understand the industry structure on a deeper level. Applying a supply chain mapping approach, this study presents a complete picture of the U.S. fresh tomato supply chain with valuable insights into the fresh produce industry and lays the groundwork for future research on solving supply chain issues.

Specialty crop production is labor-intensive. Rising labor costs and uncertainty regarding labor availability are threatening the financial viability of many agricultural producers in the United States. In response, stakeholders are searching for alternatives to labor-intensive production systems, thus driving technological innovation. This article aims to review current technological developments at the forefront of specialty crop production. We specifically review recent literature in the past decade to highlight trends in technology advancement based on the category and functionality of the technology and discuss the economic impact and limitations of these technologies.