The Halloween Horrors of Being Montana Sugarbeet Farmers

With candy sales skyrocketing, it’s surprising to see our hard-working farmers earning less than ever.

That's what Montana's Western Ag Network tells us. While one might think that Halloween would represent one of the peak seasons for our state's sugarbeet farmers, the dollars and cents just don't make a lot of sense.

Western Ag Network research shows that Americans are forecast to spend $3.9 billion on candy this Halloween, per the National Retail Federation. That’s up from $3.6 billion last year and $3.1 billion in 2023.

THERE'S NO DOUBT HALLOWEEN IS SWEET, BUT...

You might have faced a fright this year as you purchased candy for the goblins and ghouls who haunt your door. The price you pay for candy has increased – while the already small amount our farmers receive for the sugar in that candy has decreased.

Western Ag Network looked at the prices for some Halloween-ready bags of multiple trick-or-treat portions and compared them to the same items from their last Halloween survey in 2023. In true Halloween horror, the retail price of the items they surveyed increased an average of 19%. But, the cost of sugar in each item decreased an average of 33%.

PRICES ON SWEETS FOR TREATS IS GOING SOUR FOR FARMERS

The cost of planting, cultivating, harvesting, and processing the sugarbeets and sugarcane that become the real sugar in your favorite Halloween treats has skyrocketed. But the prices American sugar producers receive for their sugar has decreased. In just the past two years, prices for beet sugar and cane sugar have fallen by 42% and 24%, respectively.

MUNCHING ON CANDY NUMBERS

For example, a bag containing 22 individual fun-sized packages of chocolate candies that was priced at $5.99 in 2023 is now priced at $6.99 in 2025. Yet, the cost of the sugar required to make that bag of candy has decreased from $0.25 in 2023 to $0.16 in 2025. The sugarbeet or sugarcane farmer who grew that crop will receive even less.

READ MORE: Gnaw on This: Why Should Beavers be Relocated in Montana?

The farming industry can be a spooky challenge, regardless of the crop. Western Ag Network concluded by saying, "Thank you to the sugarbeet and sugarcane farmers who are still hard at work in the fields harvesting and the workers who extract the sugar that makes our Halloween treats so sweet."