By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

MORTON, Ill. — Recent Internet blogs and online chat rooms have been abuzz with speculation that a predicted shortage of canned pumpkin by Nestle-Libby’s, which controls up to 90 percent of the U.S. market for the popular holiday food product, was a hoax designed to boost sales.

Not true, said Tazewell County farmer John Ackerman, who contracts with Libby’s to grow its special strain of pumpkin for canning. Ackerman, who farms near Morton – where 5,000-6,000 acres of field pumpkins are grown for Libby’s – said he will have to plow his crop of half-frozen, waterlogged and rapidly-deteriorating pumpkins under the ground.

With dozens of area pumpkin patches facing the same soggy fate, the Morton-based Libby’s announced in November it had suspended its pumpkin pack for 2009 and warned of a shortage of canned pumpkin on supermarket shelves during the holidays.
Many supermarkets and wholesalers have reported they have, indeed, run out of the Libby’s brand of processed pumpkin.
“I just couldn’t get into the field to harvest the pumpkins,” said Ackerman, echoing the lament of approximately one-third of Libby’s contracted growers in central Illinois. “We were so wet in the spring, we had to plant late, and the summer was cool and wet, making for late maturing.

“By the time the pumpkins were mature, it was still raining and we just couldn’t physically get the pumpkins out of the field.”
Ackerman said though Libby’s decided to not attempt to get harvesting machinery into his field, the company will still reimburse him for his efforts. “The company is going to estimate the yield,” he said. “They really have treated us farmers very well.”
Without company reimbursement, Ackerman said, many producers would be unable to recoup their expenses through crop insurance or government programs.

“There is federal crop insurance available for pumpkins, but the coverage for specialty crops is very limited,” he said. “If your yield estimate is low enough, there is a chance you can get coverage through federal crop insurance.”

This is the second straight wet harvest Libby’s has encountered, which led to a shortage of surplus product to carry into 2009. When the current supply of Libby’s canned pumpkin is exhausted, there will be no more available until after the 2010 pumpkin pack.

“I’ve heard through the pumpkin grapevine – if you will – that even though the supply may last through the holidays, there will be no more canned pumpkin available until after the next harvest,” said Ackerman, who is not sure when he’ll get around to plowing under his 2009 pumpkin crop.

“It looks as if we’re going from muddy ground to frozen ground,” he said late last week. “There is a chance I could get into the field (this month), but temps are getting pretty low for discing.”
Ackerman indicated he would likely rotate his pumpkins with soybeans next year and relocate his pumpkin plot.

“If only we could have changed the weather,” remarked Paul Bakus, vice president and general manager for Nestle Baking, in a company news release. “If you are unable to find Libby’s 100 Percent Pure Pumpkin at your local grocers, we apologize and hope you understand.”

Ackerman expressed concern for the many seasonal field workers usually hired by Libby’s during the pumpkin harvest, the Libby’s plant employees in Morton and the truck drivers who are suffering financially because of the cancellation of the pumpkin pack.
“I feel for everyone involved in this,” he said. “We’ll recover from this and look forward to next year.”

According to Roz O’Hearn, a spokesperson for Nestle-Libby’s, if one turned all of the pumpkins grown in the Morton area into pumpkin pies, it would total 90 million pies.