Halloween shrinkflation: How candy companies are adapting amid cocoa crunch – National [Video]

With Halloween less than a week away, trick-or-treaters in Canada are in store for smaller chocolate treats and more non-chocolate candies as high cocoa prices continue to spook candy makers.

With the cost of the main ingredient in chocolate going up, companies have had to hike their prices, reformulate and even resort to “shrinkflation” — when the product gets smaller, but the price remains the same.

To avoid the high cocoa costs, U.S. confectionery companies are stocking store shelves with fewer Halloween chocolates and doubling down instead on cheaper gummies and licorice such as Mondelez’s Sour Patch Kids and Hershey’s Twizzlers ghosts, according to market research firm Circana.

The shift to gummies, licorice and flavoured crèmes comes as chocolate makers face shrinking margins and slowing sales.

Companies are having to adapt so they don’t lose out on those Halloween sales, said Mike von Massow, a food economist at the University of Guelph.