Mangoes supply expected tight until mid-March

Mango supplies are very low due to El Nino-related weather conditions, and they will likely stay low well into March, importers say.
Rains have seriously limited supplies from Peru, and the upcoming Mexican deals are a big question mark for the same reason.
The first Mexican shipments from the southern state of Chiapas crossed the border Feb. 18, and volumes will increase slowly, and won’t peak until mid-March.
Strong winds and late rains in mid-February in the state of Nayarit could push the beginning of the deal back in May. The rains could lead to volume and quality issues.

Rare, unusual or just hard to find?

That's a specialty produce item and we've got it!

Why would you use specialty produce items? Specialty items, like the rambutan in the photo, help 'kick things up a notch' and create excitement for customers to dine out instead of eating in. They also provide a way to differentiate your menu with a signature item.

Don't know where to start? Give your sales executive a call to learn more. Orders placed by 10:30 will be here for the next delivery day. A few items may require a 48 hour delivery.

Here are a few items to get you thinking:

• Orange baby bunch carrots with tops - Check out our sale price!
• Exotic tropical fruits
• Wild domestic mushrooms and wild imported mushrooms
• Fresh herbs
• Baby vegetables
• Specialty lettuces

Are you inspired?

Peddler's Son Tour 2010

We have built our business on a foundation of basic principles that include great service, great quality, honest prices and loyalty to our customers and employees. Our home is your home! We are proud of our facility and would be honored to show it off to you and your staff. We can show you everything from how your product is received, to how it is stored in our coolers that are temperature specific to the product that they store, down to how your order is picked and delivered. You will also meet the best team in the business that makes it all possible for us to provide you with the great product and customer service that we strive for. Just ask a representative and we can schedule a tour. Our goal at Peddler’s Son Produce, is to build lasting relationships.

We love Yelp!

Bravi Italian Kitchen hosted our January Tweetup. Gabi, from Yelp, joined us to learn more about Yelp for Business Owners. This is a wonderful tool that offers businesses the ability, through a business account, to keep customers updated with special offers and announcements, send private or public messages and track your business's page views. Yelp even created a video to walk you through all of tools and you can check it out here.

In my opinion, local and real-time search are the future. Yelp now gives us more tools to work in this environment and I can't wait to see how things progress.

What do you think about local search? Do you Yelp? Do you comment on other sites? What about other social media tools?

Ahh the new year, looking forward to.........

Valentine's Day! Yes, already. It's just around the corner and I bet you're wondering about the connection between this holiday and produce. Turns out, there are loads of fruits and vegetables that are connected with this holiday. The following article from www.fruitandveggieguru.com outlines several items that have been tied to romance and the holiday.

Why send flowers? Chocolate is soooo 2009, celebrate Valentine's Day 2010 with fruit and vegetables!

So, does anyone have any other fruit and vegetable suggestions?

Yelp! It's the Next Tweetup!

According to their site, Yelp! allows consumers to share the experiences they've had with local businesses and lets business owners share information about their business with their customers. Simply put, it's word of mouth-- amplified. Yelp! is also available for businesses. Once you've unlocked your page you can use Yelp for Business Owners to provide updated information on your business, post announcements and special offers, and communicate with your customers.

Want to learn more? Join us at our next meeting where Gabi M, the Community Manager for Yelp Phoenix will join us.

Where: Bravi Tuscan Kitchen
5940 W. Union Hills
Glendale, AZ
602 - 588-3000

When: Jan 12, 2010
2:00pm

Why: It's free and a great way to learn more about social media

Please RSVP to Dwight Wintringer at 602 410 1642

Check out the following links:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/PeddlersSon

http://twitter.com/YelpAZ
Web: http://gabiaz.yelp.com

If your restaurant is on Twitter, please send your Twitter Name to us and we will add you to our list of followers.

Do you Yelp? What do you think?

Homegrown Tomatoes - Nothing in the world like homegrown tomatoes!

We want to welcome Fresh & Local, LLC to the Peddler's Son Produce extended family of vendors! Jaime Zavala and his family, based out of Stanfield, AZ, are growing our pesticide-free cluster tomatoes.

Our customers have asked for more locally grown produce to support their sustainability programs as well as the local economy. Here at Peddler's Son Produce, we're doing the same. We're creating a program that outlines not only locally grown produce, but things we're doing to help our people and the environment.

What do your sustainability programs include? What is most important to you?

We'd love to hear from you to help you in your efforts.