Climate Causes Spike In Halloween Chocolate Price
While the price of cacao beans is down somewhat today, it remains double what it was in early 2024. Today, it trades at $6,300 a ton. It has hit chocolate prices hard. Chocolate is among the candies people hand out at Halloween.
More than half the world’s coffee is grown in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Crops there have been damaged by a combination of drought and floods, along with disease.Â
Hershey’s variety packs (including KitKats and Twizzlers) are priced up 22% over last year. Chocolate is their primary ingredient. One way large candy companies handle prices to “keep prices low” is to put less chocolate in some packages. Another is to make packages smaller and try to charge the same amount.Â
Orange And Coffee
Chocolate prices are not the only problem. The price of sugar is high as well. The overall price of candy bought for Halloween is about four times the rate of inflation.Â
The increased cost of crops used for American products is not limited to chocolate. Coffee prices have risen by almost 50% in the last year. Drought has hit the coffee crop in Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer. The second-largest producer, Vietnam, has faced its own climate change challenges.
And, orange juice faces a hurdle as well. Hurricanes Milton and Helene drove orange supply yields in Florida to their lowest level since 1933.
There is no indication that cocoa prices will drop below the current level. Halloween will be expensive in 2026.
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