Edible pumpkins enjoy surge in demand amid plant-based food boom

Demand for edible pumpkins has surged amid the vegan boom, a supermarket buyer has said (Andrew Matthews/PA)

The vegan boom has helped swell demand for edible pumpkins to record levels, a supermarket buyer has said.

Tesco’s dedicated pumpkin grower planted 100,000 of the eating variety this year, which have a sweeter flavour than the carving variety.

This is the largest number yet, and an increase of 150% in the last two years.

Tesco pumpkin buyer David Tavernor said: “Pumpkins are no longer a novelty fruit only bought by parents for their kids as an essential Halloween decoration.

“Thanks to the plant-based food revolution, they’ve become really popular with vegans, even taking pride of place as a Christmas centrepiece for the festive feast.

“The edible ones are far sweeter than the carving variety and, because of the growing demand, we’ve re-branded them this year as Sweet Cooking Pumpkins.”

The supermarket is selling four varieties of pumpkin this year – novelty including devil red and ghost white types, carving in different sizes, sweet cooking, and munchkin.

The biggest market for pumpkins remains the Halloween carving variety.