Pumpkin Prices Rise

Pumpkins might be harder to find this Fall season. Also, you better be prepared to pay a little more for them too. 

Like the price of so many other goods, the cost of pumpkins has gone up due to inflation and increased fuel costs. But there’s something else causing people to shovel out a little more cash for pumpkins this season, drought.

Maryland Farmer, Tammy Adkins, told ABC News how the circumstances are negatively affecting her pumpkin crop. “The price of fuel has affected everything, the fertilizer for pumpkins has been, you know, unbelievable. It seems that everything has gone up and of course parents see that at the grocery store so it’s affected us as well.” 

Another farmer and owner of Adkins Farm Market, Gaylon Adkins, explained how the lack of rain has led to the production of half the number of pumpkins they anticipated. “We didn’t have much rain in August, so the hot weather — where it gets above 90 degrees — we didn’t get the pollination we should’ve got. So we’re looking at about probably a half a crop of pumpkins.”

Dry conditions and price jumps have experts anticipating this Halloween to be the most expensive yet. According to Yahoo, “Americans are expected to spend a record $10.6 billion celebrating Halloween this year, with $3.4 billion of that going toward decorations.