There aren't as many pumpkins for sale this year in Hawai'i and those that are available are bulkier and cost more per pound.

The reduced supply, higher prices and bigger gourds are the result of increased costs to grow the pumpkins and an effort to satisfy customers' demand for bigger jack-o'-lanterns.

"We are trying our best to keep costs down," said Alec Sou, general manager of Hawai'i's top pumpkin supplier, Aloun Farms. "Customers want the bigger ones. But the year the bigger one comes out, the economy dumps."

Aloun Farms typically grows 40,000 to 50,000 pumpkins, with each weighing 10 to 14 pounds, Sou said.

But this year, the company planted a "hybrid jack" that — combined with light rain and more space between vines — will produce only 25,000 to 35,000 pumpkins, but each averaging a whopping "21 pounds plus," Sou said.

"You get bigger pumpkins, but less units," Sou said.

Some pumpkins at Aloun even have grown to 100 pounds.

None of Hawai'i's major grocery stores returned telephone calls seeking comment or would speak on the record about this year's pumpkin prices.

But they have advertised prices ranging from 49 to 69 cents per pound, roughly 15 percent higher than last year.

Sou said pumpkin prices of 49 cents a pound typically represent a loss leader for the grocers, a way to draw in shoppers.

Mindy Scordilis plans to take her 9-year-old daughter, Angeliki, pumpkin shopping this weekend and is prepared to pay more per pound for a bigger pumpkin.

Last year, Scordilis spent $3 for Angeliki's jack-o'-lantern. This year, she is budgeting $10.

"My friends are telling me the prices are high and no one has them on sale," Scordilis said. "And from what I've seen, they're all huge. I don't need a huge pumpkin at home, just a nice 3- or 5-pounder."

But she knows that her daughter, a fourth-grader at Ala Wai Elementary School, will want the biggest pumpkin she sees.

"This year, yeah, she really wants a big one," Scordilis said. "They're inundated with pictures of the pumpkins. It seems like a waste if you're not going to do anything with it. I'm the only one that eats pumpkin pie in the family."

NOT CHEAP TO GROW

Mark Teruya, president of Hawai'i's largest produce distributor, Armstrong Produce Ltd., said he understands the economic pressures on this year's pumpkin crop, especially when it comes to costs connected to higher fuel prices.

"They (Aloun) have had increases in their raw materials, like fertilizer," Teruya said. "Fertilizer is a petroleum product. And they face all kinds of higher costs to bring in materials."

Aloun's fertilizer bill jumped from $400 a ton in 2001 to more than $600 in January, Sou said.

"It took us 20 years to get to $400 per ton," he said. "It took us seven years to get to $600. But it's taken us only eight months to get to $1,400."

The farm consumes an average of 4,000 gallons of diesel fuel a week and has seen diesel prices rise from $2.80 per gallon in January to $5.20 in September. Also, Aloun's wells rely on electric pumps, and energy costs rose 80 percent this year, Sou said.

"With each crop, you're going to expect more increases, clear into 2009," he said.

Aloun mapped out its pumpkin production costs in March, before Aloha Airlines' passenger service went under, before Hawai'i's tourism industry stagnated and before the worldwide economy collapsed.

"For next year," Sou said, "it's still too early to tell."