A growing shortage of piñon nuts has growers and business owners struggling to survive the impacts of drought, wildfires and bark beetles.

Donna Buffett from Buffett’s Candies is one business owner who adjusted her menu to keep from running out of piñon nuts.

“We use to sell our piñon rolls individually,” Buffett told KRQE News. “We had to stop doing that because we were getting short, and now we’re to the point where we only offer a 1-pound box of our piñon candy. That’s the only selection we have.”

Buffett told KRQE News that her business normally uses anywhere from 8,000 to 10,000 pounds of raw piñon nuts per year. But that pace would soon exhaust their remaining supply if changes weren’t made.

“Based on those numbers and what we thought we had left, we were expecting to run out around the 15th of December of this last year,” Buffett said, according to KRQE News. “But we think because of the changes, and the way we started to manage the candy and the nuts we had left, we’re very hopeful that we might make it to midsummer.”

Dave Cuneo, who has harvested piñons for more than three decades in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado, told KRQE News there hasn’t been “a decent harvest in two years.” The owner of New Mexico Piñon Nut Company, Cuneo said wildfires damaged one of the areas where he typically harvests.

“I have not raised the prices significantly because I think there’s a max price that you can charge," Cuneo told KRQE News. "There are roadside vendors that have gone way beyond that price, but I stopped at $50 a pound."

Piñon crop predictions will be made in May or June when rainfall numbers have been recorded. The New Mexico Department of Agriculture says it doesn't keep track of the number of piñon trees in the state.