Halloween candy prices in B.C. have increased more than 10 per cent since last year

This Halloween, Cindy Verchere is expecting over 3,000 kids to visit her home in Vancouver’s Douglas Park neighborhood, a trick-or-treating hotspot. 

She has spent just under $500 for this year's stock, an increase from previous years.

“It starts to add up,” she said. “I find things that are on sale, if I can.” 

According to the 2025 Halloween Treat Cost Report — where the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University looks at candy prices every year before Halloween — prices have increased between 10 and 20 per cent across the country compared to last year. 

For B.C. specifically, Statistics Canada data shows confectionery items went up 11.9 per cent last year. 

A few years ago, Verchere reduced the amount of candy she gives trick-or-treaters from two pieces to one.

“It just gets to be too much,” Verchere said. “I feel kind of bad for the kids, but it’s just what the reality of it is.” 

Verchere goes for nut-free options to be more accessible, bu they are often more expensive than candy that contains nuts. 

Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, says there are several driving factors behind the price increase. 

A “dramatic” increase in cocoa prices, driven by a series of climate disasters ruining crops in major cocoa-producing countries in West Africa, has hiked chocolate prices in recent years, he said.

The price of packaging and shipping candy has also gone up, he added. 

Charlebois says one way manufacturers are dealing with increasing prices is through shrinkflation — when companies shrink the volume of product instead of increasing the price — particularly for mini chocolate bars and chip bags. 

“They still want to make sure that they attract customers buying Halloween candy, but at a reasonable price the only way to do that is to reduce the quantity,” Charlebois said.

But another takeaway from the report is that Canadians are spending more on Halloween candy, noting generosity has not shrunk, Charlebois said.