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How did the 2025 processing tomato season perform?
In 2025, the global processing tomato supply chain recorded a total production of just over 40 million tonnes — significantly lower than the volumes achieved in recent years, with marked differences across the world’s main production areas.
In this context, the United States maintained its position as the world’s leading producer, while Italy confirmed its ranking as the second-largest country worldwide for processed tomato volumes. In 2025, approximately 5.8 million tonnes were processed across nearly 79,000 hectares, once again surpassing China in the international ranking.
Despite a slight increase compared to the previous campaign, final yields and volumes fell short of initial projections due to adverse weather conditions and rising production costs.
In such a dynamic and competitive market scenario, optimizing water management — through smart drip irrigation technologies, automation and digitalization — has become essential to improving production efficiency, fruit quality and overall supply chain sustainability.
Reliable and efficient water distribution in the field
In the field, safe and effective water distribution is crucial. One of the key strategic choices concerns the type of dripline to use.
For tomatoes and many other seasonal crops, lightweight driplines are typically employed, featuring either a flat emitter or a continuous labyrinth design. Among Irritec’s most appreciated high-performance solutions are P1® and IrritecTape®.
Choosing a thin wall, continuous-labyrinth driplines such as IrritecTape® means working in the field with maximum simplicity, functionality and reduced management costs.
The spring–summer season is always highly demanding, with numerous vegetable crops — and more — requiring precise irrigation management. Drip systems delivering low flow rates provide an effective solution.
For vegetable crops in general, the advantages of low flow rates include:
- Reduced deep percolation losses
- Improved performance on heavy and poorly aerated soils thanks to a better air/water balance in the root zone
- Less nutrient leaching in the rhizosphere
- Controlled water stress management
Lightweight driplines are particularly utilized in the cultivation of tomatoes, potatoes, maize, artichokes and melons.
Optimizing ultra-low flow irrigation with Irritec
IrritecTape® proves to be a winning ally, especially where close emitter spacing is required in open-field vegetable and flower crops. Reduced emitter spacing combined with low flow rates ensures excellent performance even in very sandy soils.
Its key features include a laser-cut outlet designed to reduce the intrusion of solid particles, while the specially engineered labyrinth allows for longer lateral runs with excellent distribution uniformity. The product also offers strong resistance to tensile stress and pressure surges.
To further encourage the adoption of ULDI systems, Irritec updated this product in 2024. While Irritec Tape® previously delivered a flow rate of 1.2 lph per emitter, the new version — with a 6 mil wall thickness and 30 cm emitter spacing — provides a flow rate of 0.40 lph.
One practical advantage of this update is the ability to design longer laterals, as the head losses associated with the flow rate are reduced.
For growers who require an even higher-performance solution, Irritec also offers eXXtreme tape®, a lightweight continuous labyrinth dripline featuring a double continuous inlet filter. In addition to retaining all the characteristics of Irritec Tape®, it ensures excellent filtration performance even when using “difficult” water sources, thanks to the patented Irritec double continuous inlet filter design. eXXtreme tape® also provides the largest filtration surface of any lightweight dripline in the world.
In these configurations, driplines becomes even more attractive for open-field crops such as potatoes and processing tomatoes, as well as newer drip-irrigated crops like soybean and maize.
Taking potatoes as an example, low flow rates combined with frequent, moderate irrigations can benefit the crop’s shallow and limited root system (which typically absorbs 70% of its required water within the first 30 cm of soil). Controlled water stress also helps standardize tuber size, while fertigation can improve both yield and quality. Furthermore, proper water–air balance through drip irrigation may help reduce physiological disorders.
Processing tomatoes, drip irrigation and ULDI systems
Processing tomatoes have high water requirements, with total seasonal water inputs ranging between 5,000 and 7,000 m³/ha. These volumes must be adjusted according to seasonal climate trends — based on rainfall estimates and weather station data — and aligned with farm production targets.
Irritec’s philosophy is to deliver the right water volume back to the plant while minimizing waste, using highly efficient, low-pressure irrigation systems. Drip irrigation is the most suitable system for tomato cultivation.
Driplines are installed alongside each tomato row (approximately every 1.5 m for single rows and 1.6 m for twin rows), generally laid on the soil surface. Individual emitter flow rates typically range from 0.8 to 1.5 l/h with 30–40 cm spacing. This configuration results in approximately 6,700 linear meters per hectare (single rows) or 6,250 linear meters (twin rows).
In recent years, there has been a growing trend toward ultra-low flow emitters (ULDI – ultra-low drip irrigation). Ongoing climate change and the increasing likelihood of prolonged drought periods require innovative technologies capable of further improving water-use efficiency in micro-irrigation systems, avoiding non-productive losses caused by excessive localization or deep percolation.
ULDI systems use driplines equipped with ultra-low flow emitters positioned at close spacing (10–20 cm), creating a continuous wetted strip. Water is applied at a rate lower than the soil’s infiltration capacity, effectively matching plant consumption during extended irrigation cycles.
The most evident advantages include:
- Constant soil water tension
- Reduced deep percolation and nutrient leaching
- Less compaction of the wetted soil “bulb”, ensuring optimal water/air balance
- No runoff, even on raised beds or sloping fields
These systems can be installed regardless of field shape — even on irregular plots — and independent of water source location. This reduces labor requirements and significantly lowers energy costs.
Filtering, irrigating, feeding
For drip systems to operate efficiently over time, proper filtration is essential. Adequate filtration prevents clogging and ensures each emitter delivers its designed nominal flow rate, maintaining uniformity throughout the field.
The principle is straightforward:
- Surface water sources (lakes, reservoirs, rivers) should be filtered using automatic sand media or disc filters.
- Well water with high sand content should be treated with a hydrocyclone sand separator installed at the well outlet.
In ULDI systems especially, filter sizing and selection must be carefully designed by specialists.
Complete irrigation optimization also includes nutrient delivery through the system, using appropriate injection units and control systems. Fertigation is recommended for many crops, as insufficient nutrient availability can reduce vegetative growth and lead to smaller final products — as seen in tomatoes, potatoes, artichokes and melons.
In maize, fertigation allows nutrient supply even during stem elongation stages, when mechanical field access becomes impossible.
In processing tomatoes, fertigation promotes fruit ripening thanks to improved sugar translocation to the berries during the final growth stages. Beyond improving quality in terms of Brix levels, these systems can increase marketable yield by around 20% compared to traditional, less efficient irrigation and fertilization methods.
For open-field crops, the ideal injection system should feature three channels, enabling management of solutions A and B with acid addition. The two nutrient solutions must be injected proportionally, while acid dosing should allow programmable pH correction based on crop needs.
Irritec’s Dosabox series integrates all these features and has proven its reliability through years of successful field application.
