The Trump administration put a 17% tax on Mexican tomatoes in July 2025. Now restaurants across Texas are wondering how much longer they can keep chips and salsa free.
Tomatoes from Mexico make up roughly 90% of the tomatoes brought into the U.S. since 2015, worth more than $3 billion, according to a study from the Texas A&M University AgriLife Extension Service.
Weather Trouble in Mexico and Florida
Bad weather in Mexico and Florida cut tomato supplies at the same time. Tomato prices climbed to their highest level in two decades, reaching about $80 a box.
Grocery stores stopped carrying tomatoes for much of late April and almost the whole month of May. Restaurants held on a few months longer because customers had gotten used to free chips and salsa.
Food costs overall have gone up roughly 35% over the past two years, partly because of taxes.
How Restaurants Have Kept Salsa Free So Far
Kelsey Erickson Streufert, chief public affairs officer for the Texas Restaurant Association, said restaurants operate on very narrow profit margins even in good times.
Some San Antonio restaurants spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on salsa ingredients.
Streufert said these costs are significantly more expensive than they were a year or two ago.
The End of Free Chips and Salsa
Dante Galeazzi, president of the Texas International Produce Association, said restaurants are simply saying they cannot afford to put salsa on the tables anymore.
The timing is brutal for the industry. Customers expect free chips and salsa, and restaurants have kept serving them while supplies lasted. But the margin is thin, and the costs are not coming down.
What Comes Next
Restaurants in Texas are holding on, but the AgriLife study shows how much of the market depends on imports from Mexico.
The question now is whether restaurants can pass the cost along to customers without losing them, or whether they will stop offering chips and salsa entirely.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs restaurants keeping chips and salsa free as long as possible and is against a tax that forces those prices up without giving customers any line-by-line vote on where the money goes. That is the principle here: when the government raises the price of a staple, the people who pay should get some say over how that money is spent.
The 17% tax on Mexican tomatoes was imposed in July 2025, and it has pushed tomato prices to their highest level in two decades, about $80 a box. Restaurants have absorbed the cost so far, but they operate on very narrow profit margins even in good times, and some San Antonio restaurants spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on salsa ingredients. Those costs are significantly more expensive than they were a year or two ago.
The paper’s position is clear: if the wealthy pay more, citizens should get a far more direct say in where that money goes than today’s system gives them. A tariff is a tax on consumers, and the people paying it should have some way to weigh in on what it funds, rather than having the money vanish into a budget nobody voted on line by line.
Key Facts Box
- Tariff: 17% tax on Mexican tomatoes, imposed in July 2025
- Import share: Roughly 90% of tomatoes come from Mexico since 2015
- Value: More than $3 billion, per the AgriLife study
- Price peak: About $80 a box, highest in two decades
- Food cost rise: Roughly 35% over the past two years
Comparison Table
| Tariffs on Mexican Tomatoes | |
|---|---|
| Reason given | Protect U.S. farmers, boost domestic production |
| Cost burden | Restaurants face rising food, labor, utility, credit card, and insurance costs |
The administration says the tariffs help U.S. farmers. Restaurants say the costs are too much to bear.
Source material: “Trump tomato tariffs could spell the end of free chips, salsa at restaurants,” Houston Public Media.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.