“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.

“Like just about everyone else in the East, the wet and cool spring delayed planting considerably. The weather improved during the last couple of weeks of May that really helped the crop to catch up, and so things are looking much better. Although we do expect to be about a week or so late this year, we are in good shape at this point and the quality of the crop looks nice.”

Thomas E. Moore’s Eastern Shore crop of potatoes are harvested, cooled for about a day and then shipped out. Like other potato producers in the region, they are not stored for longer periods.

Cullen noted that it was too early to tell if there would be any overlapping as the crop is harvested and shipped, but with everyone running late, including Florida, no one has as yet expressed competitive pressure.

In addition to its Dover location, Thomas E. Moore has several other locations in Delaware that handle grading and packing. The company ships under the “Everfresh” and “Tommy Tater” labels.

Besides distributing produce, the company has a separate division that deals in buying and selling both new and used produce handling equipment, such as roller picking tables, washers, conveyors, sizers and sewing machines and stands for stitching paper bags of potatoes. The division was created in 1985.

Thomas E. Moore was founded by Tom Moore in 1923 and ultimately passed on to his grandsons, Tom and Mike Cullen. The company lays claim to providing the finest quality of goods and services at the most competitive prices, with 100 percent being its ultimate goal.

The firm is a full-service produce distributor and equipment supply company. It distributes a wide range of commodities. Besides potatoes, it specializes in onions and watermelons. Its customer base is quite diverse in that it ranges from the agricultural industry to material handling to industrial products to fruit and vegetable processing.

The company moves north for its seasonal supplies each year.

“We handle Eastern Shore potatoes in the Cape Charles area, which is located at the southern tip of the Eastern Shore,” explained Cullen. “A week to ten days later we move from there to the northern part of the shore.”

Following its Eastern Shore movement, the company handles product from other growing regions of the nation, following the seasonal changes.

“We are expecting good-quality potatoes coming out of the Eastern Shore this year,” Cullen said. “It’s too early to tell how the volume will unfold. You have to actually get into the fields to determine that.

“Nor do we know about sizes this early when a crop is running a little late,” he continued. “A lot of variables can come into play. Mother Nature can change things quickly, and sometimes for the better. Hopefully she’ll be sending us weather that will help the crop size up and then we’ll end up in good shape.”