Home > Relish Austin > Archives > 2009 > November > 19 > Entry
Canned pumpkin shortage? Don’t bet your pie on it
When a national food corporation runs low on a product, they issue a press release saying there’s a shortage.
Panic sets in.
Customers run to stock up (see: sugar, Kellogg Eggo waffles), only to find out that “shortage” isn’t a shortage at all, but one or two companies running low on a certain product.
Reports of a shortage on Libby’s canned pumpkin have been circling the Internet lately. The company says rains destroyed this year’s pumpkin harvest, which means there might not be enough canned pumpkin to go around.
It’s as if Libby’s is the only company in the canned pumpkin business. At two grocery stores yesterday, I was able to find plenty of the stuff, as well as whole pumpkins that — gasp — could be used to make pumpkin puree.
The reasons for a food “shortage” are rarely what they seem: Kellogg blamed rain for shutting down several of its plants, but one Atlanta plant was shut down for two months after a routine inspection found Listeria in a package of buttermilk Eggo waffles. It appears the plant had to be sanitized twice, which caused the delay in production that consumers will feel through next year.
Once again, there’s more than one company selling frozen waffles these days.
The sugar “shortage,” it seems, was more about prices than supply. Even the American Sugar Alliance said candy companies were crying wolf.
As for the canned pumpkin shortage? It was a rainy year for much of the Midwest, which I’m sure means that Libby’s doesn’t have as much of their signature product as they’d like.
But there’s no better way to make sure they’ll sell what they do have than announce there might not be enough to go around.
Photo by Deiru on Flickr.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: Food in the news
Comments
Austinites love to be heard, and we're giving you a bullhorn. We just ask that you keep things civil. Leave out the personal attacks. Do not use profanity, ethnic or racial slurs, or take shots at anyone's sexual orientation or religion. If you can't be nice, we reserve the right to remove your material and ban users who violate our Visitor's agreement. Click here to report comment abuse.
By Frank M
November 19, 2009 12:47 PM | Link to this
I blame the microbreweries (like us) that made pumpkin beers. That’s it. I know St.A blew Houston out of canned pumpkin for a week to make Divine Reserve #9!(released Dec.1!)
By sarah
February 26, 2010 1:59 PM | Link to this
Pumpkin sells regardless and they wouldn’t need to fabricate false rumors to sell it. I know for a fact that there was a pumpkin shortage due to excessive rain. Pumpkin is an agricultural product, not a processed product. If you do not have enough raw materials (pumpkin) due to rain, insects, drought etc there will not be enough pumpkin in cans it is really as simple as that. Nice spin on a story - and I agree that not everything is as it appears(for instance the eggos situation); however your simply making false assumptions on the pumpkin crop and if you would have done your research you would know that ( but I suppose no story wouldn’t have been a good story now would it)