Although Halloween sales have traditionally been as strong as Christmas sales for California-based distributor SuperLove Cookies, the small business scaled back on marketing this spooky season because no ghoul, goblin or ghost has been scarier than the cost of chocolate.

Both the firm’s traditional and iced cookies include premium chocolate sourced from Guittard, a 157-year-old, family-owned vendor in California that has been hindered by tariffs and exorbitant cocoa costs.

The pricing pressure is impacting confectioneries across both the retail and promotional products industries, forcing companies to adapt by shuffling their product assortments, reducing the amount of chocolate they use and/or raising prices.

“We all need to be creative, resourceful and supportive,” says Stephanie Rach, owner of and baker at SuperLove Cookies, which brought in under $1 million in revenue last year.

We need to increase the price, but pricing yourself out of your client’s budget is a risk for future opportunities.”

Stephanie Rach

Owner, SuperLove Cookies

Reluctant to pass along the increased costs to her customers, Rach keeps digging into her bag of tricks. Her team spent August forging new partnerships with candy companies so SuperLove Cookies can now offer candy corn and gummies in its branded boxes.

Meanwhile, the firm has promoted a cinnamon sugar pumpkin cookie decorated with dark chocolate, which is about 60% less chocolate than a fully covered cookie. The firm has also introduced “+ gifting,” allowing customers to choose from multiple sweet treats rather than simply chocolate-themed gifts.

Still, a higher bill is inevitable. “We need to increase the price, but pricing yourself out of your client’s budget is a risk for future opportunities,” Rach says.

Cocoa Crisis

Cocoa prices have skyrocketed over the past 18 months due to weather volatility and crop disease in West Africa, which produces more than 75% of global supply, causing a massive shortage.

  • The price of cocoa hit a record high of more than $12,000 a ton during the 2024 holiday season.
  • That didn’t weaken consumer demand, though, as chocolate accounted for a record $21.4 billion in confectionary sales for the year, according to the National Confectioners Association. 


Although the price has dropped to around $5,500 per ton, that’s still nearly three times what it cost in the summer of 2022. And that’s now amplified by 15% tariffs on imports from the Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Cameroon and Ghana – all top exporters of cocoa beans.

“More expensive chocolate has led us to need to increase our prices to maintain profitability,” says Kristina Beal, national account manager at Washington-based supplier Chocolate Chocolate, which has sourced premium Belgian chocolate from the same producer since 2018.

  • Beal says the company’s chocolate expenses have gone up by over 100% over the past three years.


Despite charging distributors more, the firm continues to experience sales growth, albeit with fewer units being sold. But because chocolate volumes are usually booked a year or so in advance, the firm will continue to pay severely elevated prices for all of 2026, Beal says.

“We’ve been lucky that so many of our clients see the value in our premium product, as we’ve been able to keep growing Chocolate Chocolate year to date,” she says.

Kristina Beal
We’re finding that some clients are now on the edge of being priced out of the market.”

Kristina Beal

National Account Manager, Chocolate Chocolate

“However, we’re finding that some clients are now on the edge of being priced out of the market. We hope that the recent pricing downturns will be long-lasting, and that our chocolate costs will return to a less-elevated rate in 2027.”

Of course, all confectioneries operate in a commodity market. Price fluctuations of any food item, not just cocoa, come with the territory. “It’s something we’re accustomed to seeing and managing year in and year out,” says David Katz, partner at New York-based supplier Midnite Snax, which as the name implies, provides chocolate, candy, baked goods, popcorn and more goodies.


As the company continues to manufacture more of its chocolate products in-house, Katz says it’s able to better manage some of the costs in the production process. “If we were simply buying our chocolate products as finished goods, I’m sure it would be more negatively impactful,” he adds. “That might be why many companies are pivoting. They may be feeling that impact.”


Kitchen Experiments

Substituting other ingredients for chocolate has been a major trend during the cocoa crisis. One glance at the candy aisle in your local grocery store will confirm even the industry giants are pursuing that path:

  • Hershey’s Milk Chocolate with Caramel Bar
  • Peanut butter and jelly-flavored M&M’s
  • Reese’s Werewolf Tracks (peanut butter cups with milk chocolate and vanilla flavored crème)
  • Kit Kat flavors like pink lemonade, birthday cake, mint and the latest – Ghost Toast (cinnamon toast)
  • Butterfingers with salted caramel, marshmallow and slated for next year, a French Toast flavor
  • Snickerdoodle Twix


“It’s crazy what’s being produced,” says Justin Walford, president of Chocolate Chocolate. “There are natural flavorings actually tailored to taste like chocolate, so you only have to put a little chocolate in, and you can make it work on the ingredients label. There’s a lot of stuff happening in the industry right now trying to work around the prices.

We have no interest in watering [our chocolate] down or cheapening our proposition by adding compounds, fillers, waxes or other things to our product.”

Justin Walford

President, Chocolate Chocolate

“For us, we’re 100% committed to full on chocolate. We have no interest in watering it down or cheapening our proposition by adding compounds, fillers, waxes or other things to our product.”

Other companies have had no choice but to experiment with ingredients. SuperLove Cookies has taken a page out of retail’s playbook, creating new flavors such as pumpkin spiced shortbread, showcasing non-chocolate products like sugar cookies and shifting from chocolate chunks to mini chocolate chips. “The mini chocolate chips are a bit more economical for us, and they still make our traditional cookies feel packed with chocolate in every bite,” Rach says.

RELATED: Promo Suppliers Impacted By Rising Cocoa Prices

In both retail and promo, expect the experimentation trend to continue as millennial and Gen Z consumers seek out “taste mashups, unexpected textures and flavor experiences,” Carly Schildhaus, the communications director of the National Confectioners Association, told The Atlantic.

Meanwhile, Maple Ridge Farms, PPAI 100’s No. 49 supplier, sells more chocolate than any other food category, according to Melissa Larson, merchandiser/buyer at the Wisconsin-based company, which generated $9.2 million in 2024 revenue.

Chocolate remains the emotional centerpiece of many gifts, but category diversification isn’t new for us – it’s built into our DNA.”

Melissa Larson

Merchandiser/Buyer, Maple Ridge Farms

“While rising cocoa prices have undoubtedly shaped the landscape, they haven’t caught us off guard,” Larson says. “We’ve intentionally built a product portfolio that balances chocolate with diverse flavor profiles.”

Indeed, Maple Ridge Farms – which SAGE says ranked No. 1 in distributor searches for “food” in 2024 – boasts a smorgasbord of meats, cheeses, cookies, cakes and other gourmet treats.

“Our line has long been intentionally diverse, which gives us a natural advantage in climates like this,” Larson says. “Chocolate remains the emotional centerpiece of many gifts, but category diversification isn’t new for us – it’s built into our DNA.”


Chocolate’s Emerging Challenger

In addition to reducing the amount of chocolate in products, confectioneries are shifting into gummies and other chewy, fruit-flavored concoctions.

  • In the retail space, Hershey’s pushed Shaq-a-Licious XL Gummies and Jolly Ranchers Trickies – gummies with mismatched colors, shapes and flavors – for Halloween, and Ferrara Candy Company just released a juice-filled version of its Nerds Gummy Clusters.


It’s a wise move for all candy manufacturers, as the U.S. non-chocolate confection market grew an estimated 8.3% last year, reaching $14.4 billion in sales, according to market research firm Mintel.

Maple Ridge Farms has leaned into this momentum by expanding gummies, snack mixes and flavor innovations. For example, its Sour Gummi Bears launch this year aligned with non-chocolate sales being boosted by the popularity of sour candy in 2024. The company also added Gummi Bears to its Sweeter Cards offerings, propelling the category, says Jodie Schillinger, MAS, executive vice president of Maple Ridge Farms.

This isn’t about offering less chocolate. It’s about offering more delight through a thoughtfully layered assortment that adapts to the market.”

Jodie Schillinger, MAS

EVP, Maple Ridge Farms

“This isn’t about offering less chocolate,” Schillinger says. “It’s about offering more delight through a thoughtfully layered assortment that adapts to the market.”

Fellow promo food titan NC Custom also offers a wide assortment of edible gifts, including candy, chocolate, cookies, beverages, healthy snacks and more. Its parent company, Nassau Candy, is one of the largest wholesale manufacturers of specialty and private-label confections in the United States.

David Miller, president of NC Custom, says rising cocoa prices have impacted business only to a minimal degree. “Historically, we lock in pricing via contracts over a multi-year time period to ensure cost and price stability,” Miller says. “We’re a big purchaser of chocolate, which does allow us leverage in the negotiations.”


While Miller admits there’s concern once the contracts expire at different times throughout this year and next, the New York-based supplier, which generated over $95 million in revenue in 2024, has yet to see demand for chocolate wane.

“In fact, we’ve rolled out many new holiday offerings that are chocolate-centric,” Miller says.


Q4 Outlook  

Despite the hurdles, confectioneries are poised to have a very merry holiday season.

After all, consumers plan to spend $890.49 per person on average this year on holiday gifts, food, decorations and other seasonal items, according to the National Retail Federation.

  • The amount is the second highest in the survey’s 23-year history and is only 1.3% less than last year’s record of $901.99.
  • Roughly 42% of that will be used on food or candy, decorations and greeting cards, according to the NRF.


At the same time, promo firms are gearing up for their busiest period of the year, already being inundated with holiday orders. “Customers are ordering earlier than usual to secure inventory and pricing, signaling confidence in food gifting as a core relationship-building tool,” Schillinger says.

Katz says one of Midnite Snax’s delivery dates for holiday orders is already fully booked, as the firm manufactures more chocolate than ever before. He credits the supplier’s specialization in color decoration and drop-shipping programs for continuing to drive business growth.  

I can see the orders every day, but more so, I can smell production ramping up. It’s heavenly.”

David Katz

Partner, Midnite Snax

“The holiday orders seem to come earlier every year,” Katz says. “I can see the orders every day, but more so, I can smell production ramping up. It’s heavenly.”  

Even SuperLove Cookies is optimistic, having spent the past month shipping branded “Boo Boxes” full of sweet treats to clients as a promotional pitch for working together in 2026. The strategy seems to be paying off, Rach says, as the firm has seen an uptick in holiday orders and Q1 trade show cookie favor orders.

“We’re a ‘bright-side-of-life’ company keeping an adaptable mindset when the market creates challenges,” Rach says.

Midnite Snax declined to share 2024 revenue and Chocolate Chocolate didn’t share the information before publication.