Kraft Heinz, known for its ketchup, is investing millions of dollars in researching tomatoes that can withstand the climate crisis.

The company’s $5 bn Heinz Ketchup brand is not yet in danger but California – where the tomatoes for its US-produced ketchup are grown – has just had its hottest summer yet. California in fact produces more than 90% of US tomatoes used in sauces and pastes.

Kraft Heinz produces 660mn bottles of ketchup yearly, 300mn of them in America.

This comes after Burger King and McDonald’s in India took tomatoes off their menu last year, creating a tomato-less burger, as did American sandwich chain Subway. That was because of what they called “seasonal” and “quality” issues – namely, heat waves, and pest attacks.

"Even tomatoes need a vacation!" said a notice at a Burger King outlet in the capital, New Delhi. "Due to unpredictable conditions on the quality and supply of tomato, we are unable to add tomatoes in our food... we are doing our best to get back tomatoes in our burgers."

Climate change can lead to low yields and higher production costs. Tomato plants cannot flower effectively when the heat is too high.

“What is new this year is such a prolonged heat spell during the flowering period,” Patrick Sheridan, Kraft Heinz’s vice president of global agriculture and sustainability, told Bloomberg recently.

 “You couldn’t breed for three to four weeks at 100-plus degrees,” he said, referring to this year’s heat wave.

China, the world's largest producer of tomatoes, accounted for nearly 37% of global tomato production in 2024.  The next largest producers are India, Turkey, the EU and the United States. Together, these top five producers account for around 70% of the global tomato production.

At the HeinzSeed research centre in California, Kraft Heinz has been developing what it says is the perfect tomato for ketchup. For the last five years, millions of dollars has been spent on climate-proofing the tomato.

Pharma and agriculture company Bayer is, also in California, researching drought-resistant tomatoes.

“We haven’t hit the doomsday scenario of just not having just enough water to do our basic agricultural needs,” says Taylor Anderson, a vegetable breeder at Bayer, “but that day is coming and it’s coming soon.” He spoke with the Wall Street Journal.

As the climate crisis deepens, seed companies such as Bayer are rushing to create hardier crops. This includes rice and soybeans that use less water, corn that can handle higher winds and chemicals that can fight pests that thrive in a warmer climate, says the Journal.

Pesticide company Syngenta is even developing new pest-resistant cabbage for farmers in Europe to fend off insects and diseases that have spread from Africa northwards because of climate change, said the newspaper.