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Pumpkin pie lovers be warned: You may not find your favorite can of pie filling at the supermarket.

There's a national shortage of canned pumpkin and pie filling, a result of poor weather that reduced last year's crop.

Shoppers report finding bare shelves, and the supermarkets say they have been put on an "allocation," or quota, system by Libby's, a division of food giant Nestle that controls more than 80% of the canned pumpkin market.

Libby's typically uses surpluses from the previous year to stock store shelves during September and October, when the annual pumpkin harvest gets underway.

Wet conditions during last year's growing season left canners without a surplus this year, said Roz O'Hearn, a Libby's spokeswoman.

...Shoppers could confront a similar shortage next year. - Latte Times

Labels: Libby's, pie, pumpkin, shortages

Salmon prices, which gained as much as a third in the U.S. this year, may extend the rally as a virus hurts output in Chile, the nation’s biggest publicly traded producer said.

Prices may rise a further 20 percent this year amid tumbling output in Chile, the world’s second-largest supplier of the fish, said Jason Paine, head of the U.S. unit of Puerto Montt, Chile-based Multiexport Foods SA. Exports to the U.S. could fall as much 60 percent by year’s end, he said.- Bloomberg

Labels: Chile, Food Imports, food prices, prices, salmon, shortages

Holy guacamole! An avocado shortage is looming next spring.

California farmers expect to harvest the smallest avocado crop since 1990 and possibly even as far back as 1980. Hot weather in June, at just the wrong point in the growing season, is responsible for the shortfall. - Latte Times

Labels: Agriculture, avocado, Chocolate, food prices, shortages