Which of the following most logically completes the passage?

Pecan growers get a high price for their crop when pecans are comparatively scarce, but the price drops sharply when pecans are abundant. Thus, in high-yield years, growers often hold back part of their crop in refrigerated warehouses for one or two years, hoping for higher prices in the future. This year's pecan crop was the smallest in five years. It is nonetheless quite possible that a portion of this year's crop will be held back, since ___________.

• Aeach of the last two years produced record- breaking pecan yields  
• Bthe quality of this year's pecan crop is no worse than the quality of the pecan crops of the previous five years  
• Cpecan prices have not been subject to sharp fluctuations in recent years  
• Dfor some pecan growers, this year's crop was no smaller than last year's  
• Ethe practice of holding back part of one year's crop had not yet become widespread the last time the pecan crop was as small as it was this year