With Halloween on the horizon, Britain is looking at a pumpkin shortage due to a poor harvest impacted by the weather.
There’s something about carving a pumpkin, popping a tea light in it and placing it proudly on your doorstep that really gets you in the spooky spirit.
Whether it’s a toothy, triangle-eyed terror that you’re hacking away at with a blunt knife or a detailed witch on a broom which you’ve carefully stencilled out, it’s truly a right of passage when it gets to Halloween.
However, pumpkin lovers may be in for a serious scare as farmers across the UK fear there might be a pumpkin shortage in time for the autumn festivities.
Bad weather has said to have ruined a whopping one third of the pumpkin harvest in Britain this year.
According to the experts, the hot weather has caused the orange fruit to ripen a lot earlier than usual, which has had a huge impact on it’s quality.
Subsequently, the shortage may lead to higher prices on this year’s harvest for those who want to get creative with a Jack-o-lantern.
Guy French, a pumpkin farmer in Basildon, told The Mirror, “We are selling at a higher price, but the main factor for that is our input costs. We always say to customers, if you think the price of filling up your car with diesel has doubled, think of what it does for a tractor.”
“The quality of the pumpkin is good – the skin finish is good, they’re a really good orange. But the drought had a knock-on impact on yield. You just haven’t got the volume there.”
It is said that a lot of farms have already sold out their crops due to a large number of pre-orders, possibly due to manufacturers pre-empting this shortage.
So keep your eye out for pumpkins early this year and if you can’t find one, then you may have to settle for another spherical shaped fruit. Perhaps a watermelon might do the job?
Read more: McVitie’s and Krispy Kreme join forces to create a Jaffa Cake Donut
Feature image: Unsplash
