Experts are predicting a nightmare at Halloween as Britain faces a pumpkin shortage.
Poor weather has decimated the harvest by a third and growers are warning families will miss out on their traditional carved Jack-o’-lanterns that have become a part of Fright Night.
The shortage is likely to led to higher prices as some farms have already sold out of stock to events planners.
Guy and Emily French who run Foxes Farm Produce in Basildon, Essex - one of the UK’s leading pumpkin wholesale growers - said their harvest was down by a third.
Mr French added: “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.”
The farm has already sold out of its crop as pumpkin patch organisers and party planners have snapped them up on pre-orders.
Describing it as “unusual”, Mr French added harvests were down across the country and warned of price rises.
He said: “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. And then our fertiliser costs are also up because of the war in Ukraine.”
And Spalding, Lincolnshire farmer William Tyrrell said the heatwave has not only hammered yield but ripened the crop too early.
The owner of Tyrrell’s Farm said: “You can put these pumpkins into controlled storage to hold them until October but if we were to harvest them it ruins the experience for the public coming to pick their own.”
