Tesco has double its sales of pumpkins this year, but is not putting its success entirely down to the witching season.
The retailer said its volume sales were up by 52 per cent compared with last year, but the main growth had been in edible varieties.
A spokeswoman said: “People are buying pumpkins much earlier in the season for eating purposes, not just for carving.”
She said sales of smaller, edible varieties were shooting up and said it was down to a higher profile for the vegetable. “We’ve got experts telling us to eat them as they’ve got a lot of nutritional benefits.”
Meanwhile Sainsbury’s also reported successful sales of the vegetable, shifting 500,000 pumpkins last week alone, up 20 per cent on last season.
David Bowman, the UK’s leading pumpkin supplier, said demand was extremely high this year. “The whole job is running out of control and we were struggling towards the end, but we made it.”
Demand was particularly high on the edible side, he said, with supplies running out last week. “I think people have discovered pumpkin as a vegetable, not just messing about with it for Halloween.”
The increasing demand could lead to an increase in production next year, although Bowman said it was too early to say by how much.
Despite the significant rise in sales, values remained depressed and Bowman hit out at the retailers pricing. “There’s always the downward trend in pricing and prices were generally lower this year. Even for those that held from last year, it made little difference with the rise in costs.”
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