What’s behind scary high candy prices this Halloween : NPR

For people stocking up on candy this Halloween, it’s a spooky season in the grocery store — and not in a fun way.

Prices for candy, the most popular Halloween purchase, and gum have risen 7.7% in one year and are up more than 18% in two years, according to the latest federal data. That’s higher than the average rate of food inflation during that time.

One major culprit: chocolate. Drought and heavy rains in places like West Africa have hurt cocoa harvests in recent seasons and pushed up prices worldwide.

Global cocoa production is now rebounding, but that isn’t much help to consumers preparing to hand out candy to peckish trick-or-treaters this weekend, according to David Branch, sector manager with the Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute.

“The candy on the shelves right now — chocolate candy — that cocoa was purchased in 2025,” he said. And last year’s cocoa prices were high.

Still, rising consumer prices aren’t expected to scare people away from celebrating the holiday, with the National Retail Federation estimating consumers will spend $13.5 billion on Halloween this year. That’s a 3% annual increase and sets a record: $115 per person, which is 55 cents more than last year.

Hair-raising cocoa prices are moderating

There was a surplus in the global supply of beans earlier this year, and cocoa prices have come down from their recent highs..

Yet Branch said consumer chocolate prices are “sticky,” meaning they won’t fall even when cocoa prices do because of the lag time in production. Manufacturers are also dealing with higher prices on other ingredients like sugarpricier fuel costs due to the war in Iran and costlier imports subject to U.S. tariffs.

Enna Grazier, who owns the New Hampshire small-batch chocolate company Enna Chocolate, said she is facing a slew of higher costs, including a 50% tariff on some of the holiday packaging and ingredients she planned to purchase from Canadian suppliers.

“I’ve had to look elsewhere or get creative with some of my packaging needs for this holiday season, and that’s super frustrating,” Grazier said. “It’s meant that I can’t plan as far out, or the plans that I did make were disrupted and we’ve had to pivot and change.”