Americans are gearing up for Halloween in a big way. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the price of candy up over 8% from last Halloween, more than double overall inflation. Yet despite that increase, the National Retail Federation estimates Americans will spend over four billion dollars handing out Halloween candy.
In addition, one only needs to look around any neighborhood, farm, or ranch and easily see why Halloween is close to surpassing Christmas regarding money spent. Total Halloween spending is now expected to exceed thirteen and a half billion dollars. Candy, decorations, and parties.
This is the bottom-line report. Corn and soybean harvests wrapping up though slowly in the western and central Corn Belt, storage may start to be an issue. That’s our bottom line.
Audio Reporting by Mark Oppold for Southeast AgNet.