A personal finance site's tally, reported around October 27, 2026, put the average 100-piece bag of Halloween candy more than 70 percent above its price five years earlier, a bigger jump than vegetables or beef, with a climate-driven cacao shortage the main driver. Later figures put the yearly increase at 15 percent, per Finance Buzz, and at 7.7 percent for candy and chewing gum, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bulk-candy searches are reported up more than 5,000 percent. Confectioners are now developing lab-grown cocoa cells for premium chocolate and roasted grape seeds as a cheap substitute. The five-year scale is established; the size of the recent rise is contested, and how the shortage reshapes the industry is still open.