MORTON, Ill. — Pumpkin growers from the nation’s East Coast are recovering from devastating pumpkin crop losses, but central Illinois’ contracted growers for Nestle/Libby are winding up a successful harvest, or “pumpkin pack,” a Tazewell County pumpkin producer reported.

“The pumpkin harvest is ahead of the game,” said John Ackerman, owner of Ackerman Farms, located just outside Morton.

He is one of several of the area’s growers who combine to produce more than 5,000 acres of field pumpkins for Nestle/Libby, accounting for some 80 percent of all of the canned pumpkin sold in the United States.

“Everyone seems pretty pleased with the harvest. Tonnage was very good and harvest has been going along without a hitch,” Ackerman said, adding the unusually dry summer that sapped his and most area farmers’ corn yields was actually beneficial for growing both field and ornamental pumpkins.

“Within reason, dry is good for pumpkins,” he said, “and there has been very little rain to impede the harvest.” Area growers began harvesting pumpkins for Nestle/Libby in late-July or early August, Ackerman estimated.

Roz O’Hearn, a spokesperson for Nestle/Libby, said the company will begin shipping its first pallets of canned pumpkin filling to retail outlets by the end of September.

“The harvest of pumpkins in the Morton area is proceeding according to plan,” O’Hearn wrote in an e-mail on Sept. 19. “I’ve heard from reporters on the East Coast who are concerned about the impact of the storm. The good news in Illinois is – so far – Mother Nature is being cooperative. We’ll be shipping the first of the 2011 harvest yet this month.”

Hundreds of pumpkin patches in the Northeast were washed away by floods spawned by Hurricane Irene, leading to expected shortages in both canned pumpkin for baking and jack-o-lanterns. Agricultural damage was reported from the East Coast into northern Canada, with some producers losing entire crops of up to 20,000 pumpkins, according to various news sources.

The wholesale price for a bin of 32-45 ornamental pumpkins sold from $150-$200 in northern New York, or twice the normal price, according to LoHud.com, a news source for New York’s Lower Hudson Valley.

As in Illinois, pumpkin producers from Indiana, Michigan and Ohio are reporting favorable harvests. In Texas, however, shortages are being reported because of the extended drought that has gripped the state throughout the summer.

Retailers and agritourism businesses, such as pick-your-own farms, located in states affected by pumpkin shortages have been scrambling to purchase pumpkins from wholesalers in other major producing states such as Illinois and Michigan.