Horror as pumpkins hit

Halloween parties at Black Country homes could be missing their special centrepiece this year after farmers reported a poor harvest of pumpkins.

The summer's constant downpours have meant the seasonal favourites are also not ripening to their usual orange colour.

Other autumn vegetables such as butternut squash have also been affected.

Growers are using artificial heaters to try to ripen green-coloured pumpkins before they reach the shops in time for Halloween.

Prices have been pushed up 15 per cent as farmers have to pay the energy bills of the heaters and other ripening costs.

Floods have meant the fruit, which favours dry conditions, sat in damp soil for two months and then had to grow in September's colder weather.

Richard Simkin of Essington Fruit Farm said: "We are quite fortunate in that we do have pumpkins but there are fewer and they are smaller than normal. I have friends in Cheshire whose crop has been completely written off.

"There's going to be a shortage."

He added that people could expect to pay 50p to £1 more for a pumpkin this year than they did in 2006.

The harvest at Mr Simkin's farm in Bognop Road is expected to yield between 1,000 and 2,000 pumpkins despite the difficult conditions.

He said: "Butternut squash has suffered worse than the pumpkins. I haven't got any."

Sam Leason, director of wholesaler Leason Market Ltd, said: "The farm we use in Bridgnorth and another in Worcester have said they haven't got any pumplins.

"Pumpkins have just started being pulled up and so far our stock has come from Spalding in Lincolnshire, which has not been too badly affected. Farmers can charge what they want but there won't be a dramatic increase in price."

The shortage has also hit America and Holland as much of the northern hemisphere faces similar problems to farmers in the UK.

Nearly all of the UK's stock of pumpkins is sold in the run-up to Halloween.