Last summer's drought is being felt by local grocers who have to look farther to get the big pumpkins that customers want for Halloween.
"We're having problems getting the quality and the sizing that we would like to get," said Howard Lehman, produce director for Super One Foods.
Normally, Super One stores get most of their pumpkins from the St. Cloud and Twin Cities area. But this year's crop is so poor that Lehman has had to look farther - to Michigan and as far away as Florida.
The cost to Super One is almost double over last year but the retail price is only up 25 percent, with most selling for $2.98 to $3.98 each.
"We're not able to make the profit this year," Lehman said during a stop Tuesday at the Super One store in Duluth's Kenwood neighbor-hood.
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The drought affected areas from Duluth to Alexandria, leaving northwestern and southern Minnesota with adequate rain during critical times for pumpkins, according to Brian Erickson, agriculture marketing specialist for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
"The central part of the state was dry during the growing months," he said. "So there are growers in the middle part of the state without irrigation that don't have a big crop this year. Growers in other parts of the state, where production was good, generally sell pumpkins to growers that didn't have good production. A lot of swapping is going on."
For more of this story, read tomorrow's Duluth News Tribune and check back to duluthnewstribune.com.
