Candy prices got you scared stiff? What to know about the cost of Halloween this year

Halloween prices & spending

• Transcript

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.

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

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 sugar, pricier 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."

Some candy makers have ushered in a flavor shift in recent years. Companies are offering more gummy and sour candy, and launching products that don't use pricier chocolate, such as KitKat's marshmallow-flavored Witch's Brew and Reese's White Ghosts coated in white creme.

Still, consumer demand for chocolate hasn't melted away. According to data from the market research firm Circana, which tracks purchases in U.S. supermarkets, chocolate candy sales have been increasing for several years running. However, shoppers have been buying less chocolate candy over the same period, which means people are paying more for chocolate and getting less of it.