Increase In Pecan Prices May Hurt A Holiday Treat
PHOENIX -- You may think twice about adding one traditional item to your Thanksgiving meal this year: The price of pecans continues to go up.
The price of a bag of pecans is now $11 dollars. It’s gone up $1 every year since 2008.
Pecan growers say there are several reasons for the rise: Demand from China and a record drought in large pecan producing states - like Texas - have dwindled the supply.
As a result, the U.S. crop this year will drop 14 percent compared to last year.
Roger Hooper is the President of the Arizona Pecan Growers Association.
"Consumers can only have so much disposable income and we all know what the economy is doing right now," Hooper said. "And pecan pie at Thanksgiving...Christmas is a wonderful thing to have, but consumers will probably cut back on what they will spend just because of the price getting too high."
Pecans are the only major tree nut native to the U.S., which produces about 80 percent of the world’s supply.
