Happy Halloween!
This year, it's expected that Halloween candy sales will reach a record $2.75 billion in retail sales. According to the National Confectioners Association, Halloween is the biggest holiday for seasonal candy sales, accounting for about 34 percent of seasonal candy sales (outnumbering Christmas, Easter and Valentine's Day). And, if you took all the candy that’s sold during Halloween week, it would equal about 300,000 tons or two pounds of candy per American!
With all that consumption, it's a great time to think about the companies that Halloween treats are supporting. Behind those bags of bite-sized chocolates is an industry that is increasingly consolidated, slow to move toward sustainable and socially responsible cacao, and plagued by the problem of unjust child labor.
At Equal Exchange we are proud to support a small-scale farmer alternative. Check out this video to learn more about where chocolate comes from: