Major restaurant chains are all advertising based on special low-price offerings to attract customers, according to Pete Piazza, president of Piazza Produce Inc. in Indianapolis.

In challenging economic times, such promotions are a natural extension of aggressive competition, in the view of this veteran foodservice industry supplier.

A new tomato repacking facility in Lakeland, FL, has very positively expanded the operations of Indianapolis-based Ray & Mascari Inc.

Owner Rocky Ray said June 1 that eight months after the Florida facility was opened “it is starting to come into its own. It’s just getting up and going.” There were learning experiences and “trial-and-error” tests that have now cleared hurdles.

The 15,000-square-foot facility in early June was shipping five loads of tomatoes a week. Ray said the Indianapolis facility ships as many as 40 tomato truckloads a week.

“We plan to start movement on June 28 on the Eastern Shore, about a week to 10 days later than normal,” Benny Hall Sr., owner of Benny Hall & Sons Inc. in Temperanceville, VA, told The Produce News in late May.

“The wet and cold spring made for a hard planting,” he continued. “We struggled through it, however, and now the crop is catching up nicely. We expect the quality and volumes to be excellent this year.”

“This year we plan to start on June 11, working Wednesdays and Fridays only until July 2,” Calvin Musser, market manager for Laurel Farmers’ Auction Market in Laurel, DE, told The Produce News.

“Then, on July 7, we move to a six-day-a-week operation until approximately Sept. 5. Product is running a little late along the entire East Coast due to the cool and wet spring,” Musser added.

“Our Eastern Shore potato harvesting in Cape Charles, VA, will start on about June 24 and will run for its normal month to six-week program,” Tom Cullen, vice president of Thomas E. Moore in Dover, DE, told The Produce News in late May.

The effects of delayed planting are being mitigated as growers see temperatures warming up for this year’s Eastern Shore potato deal. “Heat has caused the crop to catch up,” said Kenneth Gad, vice president of Cambridge Farms Inc. in Boston, MA. “I’m looking for it to be a high-quality crop with normal yields. The size profile will be fine.”

Cambridge markets reds, whites, yellows and russets. Production typically begins in late June and continues into August.