Do pecans usually pop up on your holiday table? This year you might be paying more for the nuts, thanks to a bout of bad weather and the rising popularity of pecans in an unexpected place.
A severe drought in pecan-growing states in the southern United States has affected the crop, particularly in Texas. This year the state will produce 30 million pounds less than it did in 2010, which partially explains why the price of pecans has jumped 22%, up to $11 per pound. (In 2009, pecans were just $7 per pound.)
The other factor behind the price jump is the increased demand for pecans in China. Apparently pecans are enjoying a new popularity among the Chinese, who now buy about a quarter of the U.S. crop.
• Read more: Pecan prices set to pop 22% at CNN Money
Have you noticed an increase in the price of pecans? Will it keep you from making any of your usual holiday dishes?
Related: Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie: A Corn Syrup-Free Recipe
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Unfortunately, here in Japan they are always prohibitively expensive. It's sad, because they're probably my favorite nut.
Time to find a friend with a pecan tree and get crackin' (eheh. eheheheh.)
...one of our neighbors gave us two grocery bags full of pecans recently (their family has an orchard near here?) SO I've been using them slowly and haven't touched the pricey bag of pecan halves in the fridge. Maybe I'll make a pecan pie for Thanksgiving as well as my fave pumpkin pie...?
Poor squirrels :( The ones in my neighborhood are looking very skinny
Thanks for the information. The chopped and toasted pecans I regularly get at Trader Joe's jumped up in price significantly last month. I was surprised and disappointed by the increase and had to stop eating them in my daily oatmeal because of the higher cost. At least now I know there was a logical reason for the inflation, and I can hope the prices might drop again if crops are good next year.
Funny mayiyaodoessa, I share pecans and peanuts with the squirrels and was worrying that my favorite little lady squirrel is getting too fat to be safe in the trees.
There's been a big to do around here in Middle Georgia because a lot of the pecan orchards have been foreclosed on and the trees, which are full of nuts, are sitting fallow in the fields, but the banks don't want people to come and get them. How silly!
our squirrels have been looking oddly skinny this year too! how bizarre.
Funny, that's exactly what the pecan supplier to the bakery I worked at told us last year right before Thanksgiving...
I LOOOOOVE pecans, so I am super sad that they are so expensive. But, we can only blame global climate change. Yay year-round wildfires...?
Booo drought.
foodefafa, Texas has been in a drought for the past several years, it's been getting worse. So the pecan supplier last year was probably still telling the truth.
Most of the places here in Texas were you can pick your own are closed for the year due to drought. I have picked up a few on walks through the neighborhood and when cracked open they are no good. :(
I wish someone would come pick off all the pecans on my pecan tree. The sound of them hitting the roof and skylights of my tiny house has turned my great dane in to a mess. She can't even stay with me right now because they scare her so much she tries to escape by any means she can.