Will This Be The Year There Was No Pumpkin?

Poor weather affects harvest likely to be less pumpkin available this holiday Nestle Baking today announced that it expects a shortage of LIBBY S r Pumpkin on store shelves as the country enters the holiday season Heavy rains persisted throughout the 13-week harvest in Morton Illinois frustrating efforts to pick the entire crop As a result less pumpkin has been picked and canned leading to an anticipated shortage of LIBBY S pumpkin products as the holidays approach We know that LIBBY S Pumpkin with the LIBBY S Famous Pumpkin Pie Recipe on the label plays an important role in the traditional holiday meal said Paul Bakus Vice President General Manager Nestle Baking Libby s has been a part of that tradition for more than 80 years and we appreciate that honor That s why we wanted to alert bakers to the anticipated shortage Our calculations indicate that we may deplete our inventory of canned LIBBY S pumpkin as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday As a result of the weather and the company s commitment to picking and packing only quality fruit the 2009 inventory of canned pumpkin will be smaller than planned Nestle is continuing to ship the last of the already canned inventory When it is gone there will be no more pumpkin available until the 2010 harvest This is why the company believes a shortage of LIBBY S pumpkin is likely If only we could have changed the weather said Bakus We hope Mother Nature is nicer to us next year hopefully delivering less rain and more sunshine If you are unable to find Libby s 100 percent Pure Pumpkin at your local grocers we apologize and hope you will understand To try and help bakers who may be disappointed by the shortage Bakus is encouraging bakers to visit www VeryBestBaking com where they ll find new recipes added to the pie collection All trademarks are owned by Societe des Produits Nestle S A Vevey Switzerland