Arts & Culture

Increase In Pecan Prices May Hurt A Holiday Treat

By Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez / Senior Field Correspondent

Published November 10, 2011 at 2:00 AM PST

This story was published more than 12 years ago.

Rise In Pecan Prices

You may think twice about adding one traditional item to your Thanksgiving meal this year: The price of pecans continues to go up.

The price of a bag of pecans is now $11 dollars. It’s gone up $1 every year since 2008.

Pecan growers say there are several reasons for the rise: Demand from China and a record drought in large pecan producing states - like Texas - have dwindled the supply.

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As a result, the U.S. crop this year will drop 14 percent compared to last year.

Roger Hooper is the President of the Arizona Pecan Growers Association.

"Consumers can only have so much disposable income and we all know what the economy is doing right now," Hooper said. "And pecan pie at Thanksgiving...Christmas is a wonderful thing to have, but consumers will probably cut back on what they will spend just because of the price getting too high."

Pecans are the only major tree nut native to the U.S., which produces about 80 percent of the world’s supply.

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Nadine Arroyo Rodriguez

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Nadine is a Senior Field Correspondent (Phoenix) who focuses on stories throughout the southwest and issues that directly affect Arizona’s Latino community. She is an Emmy-nominated journalist and a Telly Award winner. She is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism and earned a Masters in Education from Northern Arizona University. She comes from a lengthy background in communications. Her broadcasting career includes Arizona’s PBS station KAET-TV. She was a producer and correspondent for the public affairs programs Horizon and Horizonte. While in Chicago, she hosted on-air bilingual pledge drives for WTTW Channel 11 (PBS), making her the only bilingual pledge host at the time. She was a general assignment reporter for Tribune Company’s ChicagoLand Television News, Univision affiliate WCIU-TV Channel 26 and WYCC-TV. She also worked for Comiskey Park (now U.S. Cellular Field), the home of the Chicago White Sox and United Center (Chicago Bulls) Scoreboard Operations. She co-produced a bilingual television parenting program on both Chicago’s Telemundo and WYCC-TV Channel 20. Aside from her broadcasting career, she served in various roles in public relations, community outreach, and marketing. Her extensive public sector experience extends to several departments of the City of Chicago, Mayor’s Advisory Council on Latino Affairs, and the U.S. Congress. Other professional experience includes Vice President of Community Outreach for the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee. Currently, she mentors and teaches public radio writing and reporting to inner city students and participates in journalism workshops for high school students throughout the Phoenix area. Her goal is to teach journalism in a higher education institution, while continuing her mentorship initiative. She was born in Puerto Rico to Puerto Rican and Belgian parents, and raised on Chicago’s southside in La Villita (a predominantly Mexican community). This diverse background taught her valuable lessons in various Latino cultures and informs her insight into issues of great interest to Latino families and business community.

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