Why is candy so expensive this Halloween?
Candy costs 47% more than in 2020, while Halloween candy budgets rose 26%. Prices are still climbing, up 7.7% in the past year against 3.7% for all prices. Cocoa is the main reason. Its price more than quadrupled to a record in early 2025. It has fallen by 45% since, but candy makers lock in cocoa prices up to two years ahead, so the record costs are reaching the shelves now.
Candy prices rose 47% since 2020, Halloween candy budgets 26%
Planned candy spending per person celebrating went from $28 to $35. In the 2010s it was the other way round: budgets rose 36%, prices 17%. Change since September 2020, or since 2010 on the second tab.
Cocoa costs fell, candy prices kept rising
Change since December 2019. The BLS article's version of this chart stops in November 2024.
Up to and including Sep 2026
Why candy still costs more
- **A cocoa shock.** Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana grow over half the world's cocoa. Heat, drought, then heavy rain and crop disease cut world output by more than 13% in the 2023–24 season, and cocoa futures hit a record of $12,565 a ton in December 2024 (BLS). Futures fell to about $2,850 in March 2026 and climbed back to about $5,600 by late October on fears of an El Niño (Barchart).
- **Bought ahead.** Candy makers lock in cocoa prices long before the beans reach a bar: Hershey hedges 3 to 24 months ahead. Cocoa import prices peaked in Mar 2025 and are down 30% since, but what candy makers charge is close to its highest and up 6.8% on a year ago.
- **Halloween's turn.** Hershey's 2025 price rise left out Halloween packs. In July 2026 it told investors to expect “high single-digit” seasonal price rises in the last quarter of the year (earnings call).
- **Not tariffs on cocoa.** Cocoa beans have been exempt from US reciprocal tariffs since November 2025. Chocolate from the EU pays a 10% tariff since July 2026.
- **Protected sugar.** The US sugar program limits imports, so US sugar costs about twice the world price. A drought in Mexico, the largest supplier, cut its shipments to the US in 2023–24 (BLS).
- **Smaller packs count as price rises.** BLS adjusts for package size. Downsizing added 2.1% to candy and gum prices from January 2019 to October 2023 (BLS).
US sugar costs 2.1 times the world price
Raw sugar, US cents a pound, monthly average since 2000.
What a bag costs at a large US retailer this week
- !Image 1
Reese's Cups
$6.29
10.5 oz bag
- !Image 2
Snickers Fun Size
$6.19
10.6 oz bag
- !Image 3
M&M's Peanut
$5.89
10 oz bag
- !Image 4
Mars variety bag
$25.99
200 pieces, 13¢ each
About the data
- The cost chain follows the BLS Monthly Labor Review article “Why is candy so expensive these days?” by Natalie Ho (September 2026), which charts the same four indexes from December 2019 to November 2024. Here they run to Sep 2026. Cocoa imports is the import price index for cocoa and cocoa preparations; candy ingredients the producer price index for confectionery materials, such as cocoa products and sweeteners; candy makers' prices the one for confectionery end products. All are not seasonally adjusted.
- The budget chart starts in September 2020, the last year before the price surge. From 2010 both rose about the same, budgets 71% and prices 72%: budgets grew faster in the 2010s and prices caught up after 2020. Starting in 2019 or 2021 shows the same gap.
- The NRF figures are what adults celebrating Halloween planned to spend on candy, not what they paid at the till. The 2026 survey asked 7,889 adults from September 1 to 9.
- Candy prices are the BLS consumer price index for candy and chewing gum, not seasonally adjusted. BLS counts a smaller pack at the same price as a price rise.
- Bag prices are national online prices from one day. Store prices and sales can differ.