For most people in the United States, the first two things that pop to mind when the word pumpkin comes up are pumpkin carving for jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin pie. It is the latter that inspired today’s post since pumpkin pie is one of the traditional dishes on a Thanksgiving Day menu.

Only a small portion of the pumpkins grown in the United States are actually used for decoration and jack-o-lanterns. The majority are consumed as food and most of those are processed into canned pumpkin and pie mix. The place most associated with this pumpkin processing is the town of Morton, Illinois where, in a Libby’s processing plant, approximately 85% of the world’s canned pumpkin is canned.

Today’s market size is the estimated value of the 2011 pumpkin crop in the United States. We wish all our visitors a Happy Thanksgiving.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2011
Market size: $116.5 million
Source: Malinda Geisler, “Pumpkins,” one of a series of reports produced by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Resource Center. This one is dated August 2011 and is available online here.
Original source: U.S. Department of Agriculture