Halloween participation is set to rise this year, but the growing seasonal opportunity comes as UK pumpkin growers face a glut of undersized produce that falls outside supermarket specifications.

Recent research from the Institute of Grocery Distribution found 36 percent of shoppers planned to celebrate Halloween in 2026, up from 27 per cent in 2025. The proportion of celebrators intending to attend a party or event has also climbed from 25 per cent to 32 per cent, signaling a shift beyond the traditional family activities of pumpkin carving and trick-or-treating.

Participation is now highest among 18 to 24-year-olds, giving retailers a broader demand base to serve.

Yet the supply picture is less straightforward. This summer’s heat produced large volumes of smaller pumpkins and squash that many supermarkets will not accept.

“This summer’s heat left many pumpkins and squash smaller than usual, despite growers working harder than ever to protect their crops,” says Emilie Vanpoperinghe, CEO and co-founder of Oddbox.

“When produce doesn’t fit supermarket specs, it often never leaves the farm, and a grower who relies on one buyer has nowhere else to send it.”

Undersized crop creates a surplus challenge

Oddbox is working with more squash growers than ever this year, sourcing from Worcestershire to Sussex, and said every region in its network had been affected.

So far this season it has rescued 14,400 pumpkins, 20,000kg of kabocha squash, 7,800kg of butternut squash and 7,275 Crown Prince squashes from going to waste.

Vanpoperinghe stresses: “These small squashes taste just as good, but a system built around uniformity turns that kind of variation into waste.

“Specifications need to flex with the harvest, rather than expecting the harvest to flex to our specifications. Oddbox has rescued about 40 tonnes of UK squashes and pumpkins so far this season, but rescuing them is only half the job.”

The mismatch highlights a structural risk for growers whose routes to market depend heavily on a single supermarket buyer. Cosmetic and size standards can leave edible crops in fields when weather changes the shape or scale of a harvest, while hotter, drier summers make that variation harder to plan around.

Turning seasonal demand into a supply chain lever

Around 22 million pumpkins, worth roughly £32m, are thrown away each Halloween, but part of this waste problem begins before produce reaches stores.

More flexible specifications and additional outlets for surplus could help retailers match a growing seasonal audience with crops that are plentiful, even when they are not uniform.

“If retailers become better at inspiring meals around what is plentiful, demand itself can become another tool for managing climate volatility,” shares Vanpoperinghe.

There is therefore an opportunity to not only to sell more pumpkins as Halloween participation grows, but to use merchandising, recipes and meal inspiration to create demand around the varieties and sizes the harvest actually delivers.

Oddbox adds it has rescued more than 68,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables over the past decade, underlining the wider scale of produce that can be redirected when alternative routes to consumers exist.

Photo by Marius Ciocirlan on Unsplash

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