119 million tons of tomatoes were produced during 2002, with the crop being grown across 9.9 million acres in over 160 different countries. Total world production has increased by over 35% over the last ten years. The biggest producer is China with 27.6 million tons, followed by US with 13.4 million tons.
The other major growers, with figures above 5.5 million tons, are Turkey, India, Italy and Egypt. The current average world yield stands at 12 t/ac, but highest yields are from European glasshouses where yields can exceed 312.3 t/ac in a season. A high yielding field grown crop of fresh tomatoes with furrow irrigation typically produces between 22.3 - 31.2 t/ac.

Around a quarter of the world’s total production is now grown for the processing industry. This is nearly double the level of the mid 1980’s. Per capita consumption of processed products averages 12.4 lb/year, but this varies from 82.5 lb/year in the USA to 0.2 lb/year in India. The highest per capita consumers are the Americans, Italians and Canadians. 91% of processing production is in the northern hemisphere. Biggest processors are the US (largely California) at nearly 11 million tons, followed by Italy at just under half this. Spain, Turkey, China, Brazil and Greece are the other main producers and currently process over 1.1 million tons of tomatoes per year.

4.6 million tons of fresh tomatoes are exported every year with Spain and Mexico being the major exporting countries. Total world exports of processed tomatoes include 3.3 million tons of juice and 2 million tons of paste.