Pumpkin Spice Fever

As leaves start to change and temperatures drop, suppliers and retailers prepare for the overwhelming seasonal demand for pumpkin.

It’s hard to remember a time when you could only eat pumpkin in your Thanksgiving pie. Now, as early as August, you’ll find your local grocery store stocked with a plethora of pumpkin-flavored foods, from pumpkin Cheerios to pumpkin kale chips. Starbucks devotees anxiously await the arrival of the famous Pumpkin Spice Latte every fall, breweries churn out pumpkin-flavored brews by the barrel, and pumpkin pops up all over menus at local restaurants and cafes.

With pumpkin in such high demand during the fall season, how can suppliers make sure that shelves stay stocked through late November, when millions of Americans look forward to indulging in a slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving?

The Power of Pumpkin

Pumpkin and pumpkin spice are a longtime staple of American kitchens. Recipes featuring this seasonal flavor date as far back as 1796, when Amelia Simmons published a recipe for a “pompkin pudding" with pumpkin, ginger, and nutmeg in her landmark cookbook American Cookery. While that recipe has evolved over the years, Americans have not lost their taste for this “gord-eous” orange fruit, especially during the fall.

In recent years, Americans’ love of pumpkin pie has evolved into a frenzy, forcing suppliers to greatly increase pumpkin production. Indeed, Forbes reported that pumpkin production in the US grew from 1.21 billion pounds in 2012 to 1.31 billion pounds in 2014. 90% of these pumpkins come from Illinois, the home of the country’s largest pumpkin canning factory, Libby’s. Owned by Nestle, Libby’s produces eight out of every ten cans of pumpkin sold across the world. In order to meet the seasonal demand for pumpkin, canning factories work overtime in the months leading up to the fall season to make sure shelves remain stocked through the fall holidays.  

Demand for pumpkin is at its peak at the start of fall, so food retailers looking to offer pumpkin items must communicate with suppliers and place their orders well in advance to ensure they’ll have enough stock on hand to last through the season. As with other seasonal food items such as Thanksgiving turkeys, retailers can easily run out of stock early (and risk missing a major sales opportunity). To keep the supply chain running as smoothly as possible, retailers should plan to place their pumpkin orders long before the first fall chill.