Can't find canned pumpkin? Holiday staple should return to shelves soon

Bakers hunting for canned pumpkin have found it to be a hit-or-miss proposition lately. They’ve even taken to sharing sightings on social media.

The good news, according to allrecipes.com, is that there isn’t really a shortage. The bad news is that it doesn’t make the Thanksgiving pie staple any easier to find right now.

“Just to be clear, there is not a shortage this year,” Raghela Scavuzzo, associate director of food systems development with the Illinois Farm Bureau, told Allrecipes. Illinois leads the nation in pumpkin production.

What happened is that rain delayed planting this year, leading to a later harvest and a delay in this year’s crop making it to store shelves.

Blame the stockpiling mindset brought on by covid-19 for the rest.

“Pumpkin, though available year-round, is considered a seasonal item among many shoppers gearing up for the fall and winter holidays. For that reason, demand has been higher and we are working with suppliers to meet that demand,” says Bill Lipsky, vice president, Shop ‘n Save merchandising.

“When the pandemic started, everyone was staying at home and baking,” says Derek Harenski, store manager at Ferri’s IGA Supermarket in Murrysville. “They bought up all the stock that was supposed to last through late summer and early fall.

“The same thing happened earlier this year with flour and sugar.”

Ferri’s currently has a pretty good supply of Libby’s canned pumpkin, Harenski says — but it’s mostly in the institutional-sized cans.

The store is receiving “sporadic shipments” of regular-sized cans, he says. The store’s wholesalers “are saying there’s more coming; they’re just not sure when or what sizes.”

“Like all retailers, we expect to experience intermittent canned pumpkin availability issues through the season due to a variety of factors, including increased demand and limited production capacity at certain manufacturing plants.” says Richard Roberts, a spokesman for Giant Eagle.

“At Giant Eagle, we are working closely with our supply partners to secure as much product as possible,” he says. “To discourage bulk purchasing, we have placed a three-can-per-transaction purchase limit on canned pumpkin and encourage our guests to check our stores regularly for high-demand items as we receive shipments of product to each of our stores, every day.”

“We did have a shortage for a while, ” says Karen Kalmar, assistant manager at Sprankle’s Neighborhood Market in Leechburg. “We’ve actually got a supply in — IGA, Libby’s and another (non-name) brand.

“We heard that production was down because of covid. We actually haven’t been able to get a number of items from our suppliers,” she said.

“The team in Illinois is currently working hard harvesting Libby’s pumpkins and canning for the upcoming season,” Libby’s Brand Manager Justin Corrado told Allrecipes. “We typically begin shipping to retailers around this time for bake season, so you can expect to see pumpkin back on shelves over the next few weeks.”

“There will be plenty of pumpkin for Halloween and Thanksgiving,” Raghela says.

Just keep hunting and you should be able to find what you need at some point, the store managers say.

In a pinch, you can go all pioneer woman (or man) and make your pie filling from fresh-bought pie pumpkins. Or you can substitute sweet potatoes, frozen butternut squash or roasted acorn squash.