题目选项分析

Which of the following most logically completes the market forecaster's argument?

Market forecaster: The price of pecans is high when pecans are comparatively scarce but drops sharply when pecans are abundant. Thus, in high-yield years, growers often store part of their crop in refrigerated warehouses until after the next year's harvest, hoping for higher prices then. Because of bad weather, this year's pecan crop will be very small. Nevertheless, pecan prices this year will not be significantly higher than last year, since _________.

【选项】the last time the pecan crop was as small as it was this year, the practice of holding back part of one year's crop had not yet become widely established