The size of your chocolate bars will scare you this Halloween—comments from Pascal Thériault
This Halloween, there may be a haunting fright in Montrealers' candy bowls: smaller chocolate bars and less treats in each candy bag.
that this is driven by rising costs of key ingredients like cocoa and sugar have quietly pushed manufacturers to reduce product sizes to avoid alarming consumers, a strategy known as shrinkflation.
The surge in ingredient prices has been substantial. Cocoa beans have nearly doubled in cost, while sugar has spiked by about 24% since May. Agronomist and economist Pascal Thériault, Director of McGill's Farm Management and Technology Program, told the Gazette that the rise in cocoa bean prices can be attributed to poor harvests in Western Africa, which produces about 60% of the world’s supply.
Heavy rains followed by droughts, aging plantations and climate-driven diseases have slashed yields, Thériault said. Yet, despite these setbacks in supply, demand for chocolate remains robust.
However, another expert interviewed by the Gazette predicts shrinkflation can only go so far. Already sensitive to rising costs, consumers may soon reach a breaking point as they notice the ever-diminishing size of their favourite products — which could lead to a reversal in the size of chocolate bars.