2+3+4PM Why are pecans so pricey?

In case you haven’t noticed, pecan prices have been soaring in the past few years. The reason? China has a newfound love of pecans. Whereas we used to mostly eat them all right here where they are grown, now we’re exporting tons to China, which means the demand is driving up prices, and it takes 8-10 years for new pecan trees to produce a crop. So the short term problem is that pecan pies now cost too much for me to make them anymore. I’ve never been much for export tariffs, but if it means the difference between Thanksgiving pecan pie and being forced to make only pumpkin, well consider me a situational isolationist! I don’t care if China buys our bonds. Just leave my pecans alone and go back to eating walnuts!

It’s also an interesting part of the story that one of the reasons pecans have been suffering this effect but not other nuts as much is because most nuts are grown in local regions and controlled by grower cartels, but pecans are grown across regions in the US, and so there’s just this open market for them and no controls. Who knew I’d grow up to be a cartelist as well? Please protect the almonds, people! I can go without pecans, but I need my almonds.

The great news buried deep in the story is that pecans make up 27% of the weight of an average fruitcake, and if prices of pecans keep rising, it can only mean a reduction in the pestilence of global fruitcakes (the semi-edible kind, not the burn-a-Quran-in-my-Florida-cult kind). Then again, perhaps it will mean the same amount of aggregate fruitcake manufacture, but with less pecans, the one thing worth eating in them.