October 28, 2025/Media, Press

SPOOKY: “Why Halloween candy is getting more expensive and less chocolate-y” [CNN]

CNN: “Cocoa bean industry experts are expecting high price tags to be passed down to consumers…candy is 10.8% more expensive this Halloween season than last year.”

 

New reporting from CNN is highlighting record-high prices on Halloween candy as Michael Whatley’s trade war drives up the cost of cocoa beans. 

As consumers foot the bill for his reckless tariffs, Whatley has called the tariffs “record setting in terms of […] effectiveness” and said he supports them “wholeheartedly.”

Read More:

CNN: Why Halloween candy is getting more expensive and less chocolate-y

Ramishah Maruf, Matt Egan | October 26, 2025

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 every single piece of what goes into every single thing,” Tiana Young, co-owner of Escazú, told CNN. “There is no new normal.”

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