Why Halloween candy is getting more expensive and less chocolate-y
Some specialty chocolate makers are also reducing the cocoa content in their bars and increasing the sugar, like selling a bar with 65% cocoa content instead of 75%.
Halloween candy is displayed inside a pumpkin themed treat bucket in Tiskilwa, Illinois, in 2020. (Photo Credit: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
New York (CNN) — Even the joy of Halloween will cost more this year, with less chocolate than in years past.
Expect more packages of tangy gummies, riding off a meteoric high last year. Your kid’s trick-or-treat bag may be filled with a lot of pumpkin-spice-filled-anything. And like last year, cocoa bean industry experts are expecting high price tags to be passed down to consumers.
And with high cocoa prices, every producer from specialty chocolate makers to candy giants are changing up how they sell their treats. For consumers, this could mean less chocolate per package, higher prices and less cocoa content – meaning less chocolate-y chocolate – compared to before.
Overall, candy is 10.8% more expensive this Halloween season than last year, according to an analysis of NielsenIQ data conducted by progressive think tank Groundwork Collaborative and shared first with CNN. That’s nearly quadruple the overall rate of inflation.
In 2024, Halloween candy prices only rose 2.1%, the analysis found.
Halloween spending is no fun-sized matter. Americans shelled out $7.4 billion in Halloween chocolate and candy sales in 2024, a 2.2% increase from 2023, the National Confectioners Association said.
Pistachio ghosts and blood orange pistachio chocolate confections at Escazú Chocolates. (Photo Credit: Courtesy Escazú Chocolates via CNN Newsource)
Escazú Chocolates, a bean-to-bar chocolate shop in Raleigh, North Carolina, sources most of its beans from Latin America. The shop said it has always worked with smaller farmers and paid them three to four times the commodity price of cacao – which essentially sets the minimum wage. The spike in prices has pushed up what Escazú pays those workers as well.
Escazú Chocolates co-owner receives Venezuelan cacao beans in Raleigh, North Carolina, in July. (Photo Credit: Courtesy Escazú Chocolates via CNN Newsource)
Other cost-cutting measures include offering a smaller hot chocolate size, advertising non-chocolate ice cream toppings and moving to a cheaper location in Raleigh to save on rent.
And like many small businesses in America, Escazú is being hit by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, affecting not just the chocolate, but also aluminum in its packaging.
“The tariffs have hit every single piece of what goes into every single thing,” Tiana Young, co-owner of Escazú, told CNN. “There is no new normal.”
Halloween treats may look — and taste — a little different
Most Americans are not shopping at bean-to-bar specialty shops for Halloween candy. But even consumers of mass-produced candy can taste – and see – the difference compared to a few years ago.
Wells Fargo economist David Branch said users can expect to see more shrinkflation. Hershey told its retail partners in May that it would adjust its “price pack architecture,” corporate-speak for reducing the amount of product in a package so customers don’t feel like they’re paying more for chocolate.
Some specialty chocolate makers are also reducing the cocoa content in their bars and increasing the sugar, like selling a bar with 65% cocoa content instead of 75%.
A family shops for Halloween candy at a Walmart Supercenter on October 16, 2024 in Austin, Texas. (Photo Credit: Brandon Bell/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
Gummy candy and rising cocoa prices enjoy a sort of symbiotic relationship. Younger customers have been gravitating toward chewy, sweet treats – sales of sour candy, for example, grew 7% year over year, according to the National Confectioners Association. By making more gummies and less chocolate, candy companies appeal to those sugar- craving customers while saving their profit margins.
Companies are also launching special flavors that aren’t as reliant on chocolate — for example, cinnamon-toast-flavored KitKats help save on chocolate costs.
“We’re seeing more specialty products come out where they add the lower cost (fillings),” Branch said.
Candy by the numbers
Branch said that customers can expect to pay as much as last year for Halloween chocolate this year – if not more – up until Valentine’s Day. Although cocoa prices have fallen since the end of 2024, most producers are selling candy manufactured from the beans they bought during that peak. And costs in other sectors, such as energy and packaging, have also driven up costs.
Halloween candy in Brunswick, ME, in October 2021. (Photo Credit: Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
But at the core of it, it’s the beans.
Skyrocketing prices of cocoa beans have driven up costs in the chocolate industry. Worldwide cocoa futures rose a whopping 178% in 2024 from a year prior, after a 61% increase in 2023, according to FactSet. The problem traces back to Ghana and the Ivory Coast, which together produce 60% of the world’s cocoa and have been slammed by poor harvests due to climate change.
A labourer carries harvested cocoa pods at a farm in Assin Foso, Ghana, November 21, 2024. (Photo Credit: Francis Kokoroko/Reuters via CNN Newsource)
Though cocoa futures plummeted 46% so far this year, customers are seeing the higher prices now because producers are making chocolate out of those pricey beans harvested in 2024, along with tariffs and inflation costs. And cocoa prices are still way above what they were in 2022.
Sun-dried cocoa beans inside a warehouse in Assin Foso, Ghana, November 20, 2024. (Photo Credit: Francis Kokoroko/Reuters via CNN Newsource)
Groundwork Collaborative found that prices for Hershey’s variety packs rose 22% since last year, Mars variety packs (which contain Milky Way, M&Ms, Three Musketeers and Skittles) rose 12% and Reese’s Peanut Butter cups rose 8%. Even gummies have faced higher prices – the Mondelez gummy candy variety pack, which includes Sour Patch Kids, have risen 9.4%.
In July, Hershey told retailers that it was raising prices for chocolate products by a percentage in the “lower double-digit range.” But the price increase did not include seasonal Halloween candy, the company said.
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