If the drought hasn't been scary enough already, it's now darkening the outlook for Halloween festivities by making Texas pumpkins scarce.

Pumpkin production in Texas has been sliced nearly in half by the drought; and while retailers might find enough pumpkin substitutes in other states, the price could be higher and the size of the gourd may be smaller.

"It's kind of a bear this year," said Nando Gonzalez, a partner in River City Produce in San Antonio who has called on growers as far away as California and Michigan to provide specialty pumpkins for contracts he normally fills with homegrown pumpkins.

"It's a lot harder this year than it's been in the last 20 years" to find pumpkins, Gonzalez said.

He's paying about 10 percent to 12 percent more for pumpkins than he did last year - and additional transportation costs for out-of-state pumpkins could make it even worse.

As demand for pumpkins grows the closer it gets to Halloween, prices could get spookier.

"Prices are up to start with, and it will get tighter in mid-October when demand grows," said Mike Lopez, sales and shipping manager for M&P Produce Co. in San Antonio.

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He said bins of pumpkins that cost $70 to $75 last year cost at least $95 this year. In addition, Lopez said large pumpkins are much harder to find.

Mark Carroll is the Texas AgriLife Extension Service agent in Floyd County in the Panhandle, which calls itself "Pumpkin Capital USA." He said pumpkin production is down by 40 percent or more because rainfall is so far off its normal total. Recent rains will help a little, but it won't keep the size of the harvest and the size of the pumpkins from falling, Carroll said. Texas has seen its pumpkin acreage fall over the years from more than 3,300 in 2002 to 1,834 acres in the 2007 agricultural census conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Illinois, California, New York and Ohio are the leading pumpkin-producing states, the department reports. Texas no longer appears in the rankings. Overall, $116.5 million worth of pumpkins were sold last year.

Still, a short crop in Texas combined with the damage Hurricane Irene did to pumpkin growers in the Northeast are expected to increase pumpkin prices, Russ Wallace, the extension service's vegetable specialist in Lubbock, said this week.

Still, Lopez and Gonzalez will stay busy trying to find enough pumpkins to keep local customers happy.

"We have got pumpkins coming, but they're coming from farther away," Gonzalez said. "There will be pumpkins. I think the supply of Texas pumpkins will be a little bit questionable."

wpack@express-news.net