The firmness of fruit of tomato cultivars Sonato, Grenadier, Adagio, Extase and Exquise obtained from growers was significantly different at time of harvest and after storage for 7 and 14 days at 19-23°C. However, all fruit had firmness values above 1000 g force on day 7 and above 700 g force on day 14, which are postulated minima for sale of fruit at retail level and use in the home respe·ctively. There is no evidence to downgrade fruit of Sonata from a firmness point of view. Variation in fruit firmness within a sample was considerable for most cultivars on each testing date, and coeffi· cients of variation were calculated to quantify this. Correlation coefficients between Hunter a/b ratio and firmness for the different cultivars ranged from -0.91 to -0.97. Regression lines relating a/b ratios to firmness fell into two groups. 'Firmness tests on samples of tomato fruit purchased from retailers suggested that all samples were adequately firm and had a firmness shelf-life of at least 7 days.