From the far reaches of Culiacan in the Mexican state of Sinaloa through Baja and up the California coast, Sambrailo Packaging, located in Watsonville, CA, continues to see increased demand for its one-pint “RunRite” clamshell.

Jim Scattini, vice president of sales and marketing, said that while the one-pint clamshell was originally developed for use in packing blueberries, it works just as well on high-speed packinglines looking for that size space to fill. For the tomato industry, that means the packing of small-profile tomatoes typically marketed as cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes or cocktail tomatoes.

Mr. Scattini said the trend toward building hot houses for tomato production and planting these smaller-sized tomatoes is unmistakable and is occurring in virtually every district where vine-ripe tomatoes are produced. In addition, he said repackers in the Los Angeles basin and in other urban communities are also using the machinery and the one-pint clamshell in their operations. “It’s a one dry pint measurement,” he said, “but some packers use it as a 12-ounce container as well. It works either way.”

To a lesser extent, the Sambrailo executive said, some packers are also adapting the firm’s larger one-pound clamshell originally designed for strawberries and using it to pack tomatoes.

Though Mr. Scattini doesn’t keep a running total of production acreage for smaller-profile tomatoes, he said the demand for this one-pint clamshell continues to grow, and the logical conclusion is that acreage is up. “I could extrapolate and guess where the industry is as a whole, but I’ll just say the competition [for supplying clamshells] is fierce and there’s lots of growth in this marketplace.”

In 2009, Sambrailo Packaging launched the new line of “RunRite” blueberry clamshells in collaboration with top machine manufacturers. The containers were carefully engineered to run on both high-speed volume- and weigh-filled packinglines with minimal downtime and product loss. The RunRite, which comes in several different sizes, has become the standard in the growing blueberry industry.

It is just one in a long list of innovative items that tells the Sambrailo Packaging story.

The company’s lineage dates back to 1923 when Charles Sambrailo first recognized the need to improve produce-handling methods. He approached growers and shippers with packaging solutions, including paper liners designed to protect the produce as it was packed into wooden boxes. Over the years, the firm evolved as did the produce industry, developing new packaging options as the need arose.

Today, the company services its tomato packer clients, as well as its other customers, from 14 distribution centers strategically located throughout California and Mexico.