The Global Confectionery Industry in Company Filings, Cocoa Data and Trade Figures

Why this page reports company and trade data instead of one market size

Search for the size of the world confectionery market and you will find totals ranging from just over 200 billion US dollars to more than 600 billion, each from a different private research firm, each with its own definition of what counts as confectionery and each sold as a paid report. None of them is published by a statistics office, a regulator or a trade body that discloses its method in full, so none can be checked. The previous version of this page opened with one of those totals, a 228 billion US dollar market for 2026, together with a precise compound growth rate to 2034. We could not trace that figure to an original publisher, so it has been removed.

What can be checked is narrower but more useful. Listed confectionery makers publish audited revenue by segment or category every year and unaudited sales every quarter. The International Cocoa Organization (ICCO) publishes the world balance of cocoa production and grindings. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) publishes monthly cocoa and sugar prices, and the FAO publishes a monthly sugar price index. National customs data compiled in UN Comtrade show which countries export chocolate and sugar confectionery and for how much. This page brings those sources together to describe the industry as it stands in November 2026, three years into a cocoa price shock that took the price of beans to more than four times its 2023 level.

The leading confectionery makers in their own reported numbers

The table below lists the most recent full-year figure that each large maker publishes for its confectionery business. The figures are in each company reporting currency and are not converted, because exchange rates moved sharply during the period and conversion would add an estimate of our own. The scope also differs: Mondelez and Nestle report confectionery as a product category, Hershey reports a geographic confectionery segment, Lindt is almost entirely chocolate, and Ferrero reports only a group total. Mars, often cited as the largest confectionery company in the world, is privately owned and publishes no audited sales figures.

Sources: Mondelez International Form 10-K for 2025 (filed 4 February 2026); Hershey fourth quarter 2025 results (5 February 2026); Nestle full-year results 2025 (19 February 2026); Lindt and Sprungli half-year results release 2026 (July 2026); Ferrero Group consolidated financial statements 2024/2025 (6 February 2026). Percentage changes for Mondelez are BusinessStats calculations from the reported figures.

The ranking that emerges from verified data differs from the one in the old version of this page, which put Mars first at 22 billion US dollars, Mondelez at 14.4 billion, Ferrero at 13 billion, Hershey at 10.3 billion and Nestle at 8.45 billion. None of those figures matches a current filing. Mondelez alone reported 16.76 billion US dollars of chocolate, gum and candy revenue in 2025. Ferrero turnover of EUR 19.3 billion is far above 13 billion of any currency, although it includes non confectionery products. Mars has never published an audited sales figure, so any ranking that places a precise number on it rests on estimates. For context on how these companies compare with the largest listed firms in other sectors, see our ranking of the biggest companies in the world by market value.

Mondelez: chocolate is now a third of revenue and Europe is its centre

Mondelez International, the owner of Cadbury, Milka, Toblerone, Oreo and Trident, is the largest listed company whose filings break out chocolate. In its 10-K for 2025, total net revenues were 38,537 million US dollars. Chocolate contributed 12,696 million, or 32.9 percent, up from 11,248 million in 2024 and 10,619 million in 2023. Gum and candy, home of brands such as Trident and Halls, contributed 4,060 million, almost unchanged on 2024 but 8.3 percent below 2023. Together, chocolate, gum and candy made up 43.5 percent of Mondelez revenue in 2025. Biscuits and baked snacks remained the largest category at 18,391 million.

Confectionery is 43.5 percent of Mondelez: chocolate 12.70 billion US dollars and gum and candy 4.06 billion US dollars out of 38.54 billion in 2025.

The geography of that chocolate business is strongly European. Europe generated 7,799 million US dollars of Mondelez chocolate revenue in 2025, 61.4 percent of the total, and it was also the fastest growing region in absolute terms, adding 1,026 million on 2024. Asia, the Middle East and Africa (AMEA) added 216 million to reach 3,047 million, Latin America rose to 1,414 million and North America, where Hershey and Mars dominate chocolate, stayed small at 436 million. Part of the growth in 2025 reflects the higher prices that Mondelez charged to recover cocoa costs, which the 10-K singled out among soaring commodity prices in 2025.

Europe drives the chocolate business: 7.80 billion of 12.70 billion US dollars in 2025, up from 6.23 billion in 2023.

The latest quarter shows the cycle turning. In the third quarter of 2026, Mondelez reported net revenues of 9,967 million US dollars, up 2.3 percent, with organic growth of 2.1 percent made up of 1.8 points of volume and mix and only 0.3 points of pricing. After two years in which pricing did almost all the work, volume became the main driver again. Europe, the chocolate heartland, was the only region with lower reported revenue, down 3.3 percent to 3,552 million. Over the first nine months of 2026 net revenues reached 29,402 million, up 4.9 percent, and the company reaffirmed organic growth of at least 2 percent for the full year.

Hershey: four fifths of sales from North American confectionery

The Hershey Company reported consolidated net sales of 11,692.6 million US dollars for 2025, up 4.4 percent. Its North America Confectionery segment, which includes Hershey bars, Reese, Kit Kat in the United States and the company sweets brands, contributed 9,479.7 million, or 81.1 percent of the total, and grew 4.0 percent. North America Salty Snacks, built around SkinnyPop and Dot Pretzels, grew 11.9 percent to 1,271.3 million, while International sales slipped 0.7 percent to 941.6 million. Across the company, organic price realisation added about 6 points in 2025 and volume and mix subtracted about 1 point.

Confectionery dominates Hershey: 81.1 percent of 2025 net sales came from North America Confectionery.

The cost of cocoa shows up clearly in Hershey margins. Reported gross margin fell from 47.3 percent in 2024 to 33.5 percent in 2025, and the non GAAP gross margin fell from 43.3 percent to 37.2 percent. The company said the fourth quarter decline reflected higher commodity costs, extra tariff expenses and lower volume. In 2026 Hershey pushed price harder. In the third quarter, North America Confectionery net sales rose 1.6 percent to 2,656.5 million US dollars on about 13 points of net price realisation, while volume fell about 11 points. For the first nine months of 2026, segment sales reached 7,319.9 million, up 4.6 percent, with price up about 13 points and volume down about 8. Hershey now expects net sales growth of about 5 percent for 2026. US shoppers felt these increases against a backdrop of easing general inflation, which you can follow in our monthly US inflation rate tracker.

Nestle, Lindt, Ferrero and Mars: what each one discloses

Nestle reported confectionery sales of CHF 8,696 million in 2025, up from CHF 8,449 million in 2024 and about 9.7 percent of group sales of CHF 89.5 billion. The detail matters more than the total: organic growth of 8.2 percent was made up of 8.8 percent pricing and real internal growth of minus 0.7 percent, meaning slightly lower volumes. Nestle said confectionery and coffee were the largest contributors to group organic growth, driven by high single digit pricing, and that in confectionery short term elasticities were more pronounced. Its nine month 2026 statement no longer reports confectionery separately; the wider Food and Snacks category grew 4.2 percent organically with 3.1 percent real internal growth, and the company said confectionery in Zone Americas delivered strong volume growth while hot weather held back demand in Europe.

Lindt and Sprungli, the Swiss premium chocolate maker, reported group sales of CHF 5.92 billion for 2025. In the first half of 2026, sales were CHF 2.33 billion, 0.9 percent lower in Swiss francs because of weaker foreign currencies but 4.3 percent higher organically. That organic growth came from price increases of 11.8 percent offset by a 7.5 percent fall in volume and mix. North America grew 12.7 percent organically and the rest of the world 10.2 percent, while Europe declined 2.1 percent. Lindt confirmed guidance of 4 to 6 percent organic growth for 2026.

Ferrero, owner of Nutella, Kinder, Ferrero Rocher does not publish category sales. For its financial year ended 31 August 2025, the group reported consolidated turnover of EUR 19.3 billion, 4.6 percent higher than the previous year, with 48,697 employees and 36 manufacturing plants. These results exclude WK Kellogg Co, whose acquisition closed in September 2025, inside the 2025/26 financial year. Mars remains the main gap in any company ranking. On its corporate website Mars lists M&Ms among its billion dollar brands for the fiscal year ended 27 December 2025, on a combined basis that now includes Kellanova, but it does not publish total or segment sales. Ice cream, a separate category that both Mars and Ferrero also sell, is covered in our list of top ice cream brands.

Price rises of 9 to 13 percent have cost the industry volume

Putting the latest reported splits side by side shows how the cocoa shock reached consumers. Every company that breaks out price and volume for chocolate shows the same pattern in 2025 and early 2026: high single or low double digit price increases and falling volume. Mondelez is the exception in the most recent quarter, but its figure covers the whole group including biscuits, and pricing has nearly stopped contributing. The chart uses the periods each company reports, so the bars are comparable in direction rather than precisely in time.

The trade off in one chart: double digit price rises at Hershey and Lindt came with volume losses of 7.5 to 11 points.

Industry wide data from the processing side point the same way. Barry Callebaut, the Swiss supplier of chocolate and cocoa products to food makers, said in November 2025 that the chocolate confectionery market had declined 3.5 percent in volume over its fiscal year to August 2025, citing Nielsen data. The company own sales volume fell 6.8 percent to 2,125,420 tonnes, while its revenue rose 42.4 percent in Swiss francs to CHF 14,788.6 million because it passes cocoa costs through to customers. It reported that cocoa bean prices had averaged 27.1 percent more than in the previous year. For a wider view of how food prices have moved across economies, see our global inflation statistics.

The cocoa price shock from 2023 to 2026, month by month

Cocoa is the single largest ingredient cost for chocolate makers and it is traded internationally in US dollars per tonne. The IMF monthly series, which uses the International Cocoa Organization cash price, shows a market that was stable for years at between 2,100 and 2,750 US dollars a tonne from 2019 to 2022. It began rising in 2023, ahead of the 2023/24 season deficit described below. By December 2023 the price was 4,254 US dollars. It then exploded: 7,298 in March 2024, 9,865 in April 2024, and after a dip in the second half of the year, 10,412 in December 2024 and a peak monthly average of 10,710 in January 2025, 4.2 times the level of January 2023.

Up 4.2 times, then down 70 percent: from 2,540 US dollars in January 2023 to 10,710 in January 2025, 3,241 in March 2026 and 5,919 in September 2026.

The fall was almost as fast. As the 2024/25 crop recovered and demand weakened, the monthly price dropped below 6,000 US dollars in October 2025 and reached 3,241 US dollars in March 2026, 69.7 percent below the peak. It then rebounded through the middle of 2026 to 5,990 in August and 5,919 in September 2026, still 15.5 percent lower than a year earlier. On calendar year averages, which we calculated from the IMF monthly values, cocoa cost 3,258 US dollars a tonne in 2023, 7,391 in 2024 and 7,788 in 2025. For the first nine months of 2026 the average was 4,590.

Averages of twelve monthly values (nine for 2026). Monthly values are averages of daily prices, so they are lower than the highest daily or futures prices recorded in December 2024. ICCO market reports show New York and London nearby futures above 11,400 US dollars a tonne on 31 December 2024.

Because manufacturers buy cocoa months or years ahead through forward contracts and hedges, the price that reaches their accounts lags the market. That is why Hershey gross margin fell most sharply in 2025, a year in which the monthly cocoa price was already falling from its January peak, and why price increases on shelves continued into 2026. Barry Callebaut, which buys beans for customers, reported average bean costs 27.1 percent higher in its year to August 2025 than a year earlier, even though spot prices had already passed their peak.

From a 492,000 tonne deficit to a 37,000 tonne surplus

The International Cocoa Organization measures the market as the difference between gross production of cocoa beans and grindings, the amount of beans processed into cocoa liquor, butter and powder, which is the standard proxy for demand. In the 2023/24 season (October to September) the ICCO estimated world production at 4.362 million tonnes and grindings at 4.810 million tonnes, a deficit of 492,000 tonnes. End of season stocks fell to 1.272 million tonnes, equal to 26.4 percent of a year of grindings.

Supply overtook demand again in 2024/25: production rose to 4.733 million tonnes while grindings fell to 4.649 million tonnes.

The 2024/25 season reversed the balance. In its August 2026 bulletin the ICCO estimated that world gross production rose 8.5 percent to 4.733 million tonnes while grindings fell 3.3 percent to 4.649 million tonnes, leaving a surplus of 37,000 tonnes. Stocks rose almost 3 percent to 1.309 million tonnes and the stocks to grindings ratio improved to 28.2 percent. The surplus is small, and the estimate has been revised down from 75,000 tonnes and then 48,000 tonnes in earlier bulletins, but it marks the end of the acute shortage. The fall in grindings matters as much as the rise in output: high prices cut demand, which is the same volume loss that the chocolate makers report.

2023/24 figures from the May 2026 bulletin; 2024/25 figures from the August 2026 bulletin, which revised production to 4.733 million tonnes and the surplus to 37,000 tonnes. Percentage changes are as stated by the ICCO; the stock change is a BusinessStats calculation.

Two points of caution apply to 2026. First, the ICCO has temporarily withheld its production and grindings data for the 2025/26 season, so there is no official world balance for the current year. Second, the market structure is changing: a new International Cocoa Agreement entered into force on 1 October 2026, and the ICCO described the regional grinding figures released in October 2025 as notably weak, particularly in Europe and Asia.

Sugar moved the other way, until late 2026

Sugar is the main ingredient in sugar confectionery and a large one in most milk chocolate, yet its price followed a very different path. The IMF world raw sugar price (Contract No. 11) averaged 24.04 US cents a pound in 2023, with a monthly high of 27.31 cents in November 2023. It then fell for most of the cocoa shock, averaging 20.74 cents in 2024 and 16.97 cents in 2025 and reaching 13.91 cents in June 2026. For candy makers without much cocoa in their recipes, input costs were easing while chocolate makers faced record prices.

A different cycle: sugar fell from 27.31 cents in November 2023 to 13.91 cents in June 2026, then rose to 17.94 cents by September 2026.

That changed in the second half of 2026. The IMF price climbed to 16.83 cents in August and 17.94 cents in September 2026. The FAO Sugar Price Index, published on 6 November 2026, averaged 121.3 points in October 2026, up 6.6 percent from September and 28.8 percent from a year earlier, its fourth consecutive monthly rise and its highest level since December 2024. The FAO linked the rise to rain disrupting the cane harvest in the Centre-South region of Brazil, concern about Indian output after an uneven monsoon, and forecasts of smaller 2026/27 crops in the European Union and Thailand. Energy costs, another input for every confectionery factory, are tracked on our weekly crude oil price page.

Who exports chocolate and sugar confectionery

International trade data show where confectionery is actually made for the world market. In the Harmonized System, HS 1806 covers chocolate and other food preparations containing cocoa, and HS 1704 covers sugar confectionery without cocoa, such as boiled sweets, gums, toffees and white chocolate. The figures below are exports to the world reported by each country to UN Comtrade for 2024, the most recent complete year, in US dollars.

Germany leads by a wide margin: 7.16 billion US dollars of chocolate exports in 2024, 61 percent more than second placed Belgium.

Germany exported 7.16 billion US dollars of chocolate and cocoa preparations in 2024, almost as much as Belgium (4.45 billion) and Poland (3.26 billion) combined. Poland, third, has become a major production base for multinational makers serving the rest of the European Union. Canada at 2.76 billion and the United States at 2.14 billion are the only non European countries among the top seven. Switzerland, home of Lindt and many premium brands, exported 1.16 billion US dollars, slightly less than the United Kingdom. The 14 largest exporters shown together reported 33.4 billion US dollars of exports. The weight of Germany in this trade fits its broader role as a manufacturing exporter, described in our GDP of Germany statistics.

A more global trade: China and Mexico rank second and third in sugar confectionery, behind Germany.

Sugar confectionery trade is smaller and more spread out. Germany again led with 2.11 billion US dollars in 2024, but China was a close second at 1.75 billion and Mexico third at 1.30 billion. In Mexico, sugar confectionery exports were larger than chocolate exports, and they are part of a food manufacturing sector we profile in our food industry in Mexico report. Turkey ranks seventh in sugar confectionery at 0.92 billion US dollars and eleventh in chocolate at 0.95 billion.

Values rounded to the nearest million US dollars from UN Comtrade reported exports to the world for 2024. Combined column is a BusinessStats calculation.

What the numbers mean for retailers and shoppers

For shoppers, the result of the cocoa shock is fewer chocolate products bought at higher prices, while sugar confectionery and gum have been less affected. In company accounts this appears as rising revenue with falling volume. Mondelez gum and candy revenue was almost flat in 2025 while chocolate grew 12.9 percent, a gap explained mainly by price rather than by more chocolate being sold. Grocery chains are the main channel for all of these products; our retail trade statistics and the UK grocery market share ranking show how concentrated that channel is in major markets.

The broader consumer goods sector faced similar pressures from commodity costs between 2023 and 2026, although few categories saw an ingredient multiply in price the way cocoa did. Our consumer goods and FMCG overview and the food and nutrition topic overview collect related data. Online sales channels, which matter for gifting and premium chocolate, are covered in our e-commerce statistics.

What the companies expect for the rest of 2026

No primary source publishes a forecast for world confectionery sales, so the most reliable forward looking statements are the guidance that listed companies give to investors. Hershey expects net sales growth of about 5 percent in 2026 and organic growth of about 3 percent. Mondelez reaffirmed organic net revenue growth of at least 2 percent and expects currency to add about 1.5 percent to reported growth. Lindt confirmed 4 to 6 percent organic growth and an improvement of 20 to 40 basis points in its operating margin. All three outlooks imply that the steep price increases of 2025 will not be repeated, which is consistent with the lower cocoa prices of 2026.

The risks are visible in the same data. Cocoa rebounded by more than 80 percent between March and September 2026, sugar prices turned up in the second half of the year, and the ICCO has not yet published a 2025/26 world balance. Volume trends will show whether consumers return to chocolate as prices stabilise; Mondelez reported positive volume and mix in the third quarter of 2026, while Hershey and Lindt were still losing volume.

Methodology and data notes

Confectionery worldwide in eight verified numbers

Questions about the global confectionery industry