But the owner of seven Candy World stores in the Dallas area is jammed between two sticky realities. The price of sugar hence, the price he pays for candy is going up. At the same time, recession-weary consumers are reluctant to part with an extra penny, even to appease a sweet tooth.
"Because of the bad economy, we decided to not increase the price," said Patidar, a Candy World franchisee. "Candy is not a main food item. We don't want customers to go away and we lose business."
But experts say prices for a variety of sweet treats and staples are bound to rise some just in time for holiday baking.
"Food companies will pass along whatever they can to the consumer," said Jason Johnson, an associate professor and extension economist with Texas A&M University. "The profit margins on food are extremely small to begin with. A sudden price shock to a key ingredient can essentially wipe out any profit margin that exists."
Patidar said the prices of some of his most popular items have risen as much as 25 percent since late last year.
Other food industry experts said consumers should not be shocked to see prices of bagged sugar increase 5 cents a pound.
Sugar prices are measured on a variety of scales, including futures and U.S. wholesale and retail prices. All are higher this year, with some levels not seen since the 1980s, except for a blip in 2005-06, when the industry was reeling from Hurricane Katrina.From January through July of this year, the average monthly wholesale price the cost paid by food makers and grocers was 34.9 cents a pound, according to Milling & Baking News. That was up nearly 18 percent from the comparable period in 2008.
The retail price for bags of sugar is also rising. The January-through-July average was 56.51 cents a pound, up 9.2 percent from the year-earlier period, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And on the New York Mercantile Exchange, sugar futures recently hit 22 cents, Johnson noted, up 70 percent since April.
The culprit? Depending on whom you ask, it's too much rain in Brazil, too little rain in India or rising fuel prices that are siphoning off more sugar for ethanol production.
The price hikes, and concerns about supply, prompted the Sweetener Users Association, a trade group that includes food and candy makers, to urge the U.S. Department of Agriculture at least five times this year to ease restrictions on imports of cheaper, foreign-grown sugar.
Domestic sugar growers, including those in Texas' Rio Grande Valley, produce more than 70 percent of the annual U.S. sugar supply of about 11.2 million tons. The balance is made up of stocks remaining from the previous year and imports governed by tariffs and quotas.
"Unprecedented high prices of raw sugar, ... the looming tropical [storm] season and ongoing sugar refining capacity issues warrant immediate action" to increase the sugar quota, the association said in a prepared statement last month.
The group focused much of its concern on predictions for available sugar at the end of the current sugar "marketing year," on Sept. 30 this year and next.
The U.S. Agriculture Department expects the sugar supply to total 1.3 million tons on Sept. 30 and 844,000 tons on Sept. 30, 2010. The projected 2010 surplus would be about half the 1.66 million tons left over in September 2008.
Phillip Hayes, spokesman for the growers and refiners group the American Sugar Alliance, considers the outcry a calculated maneuver by sugar users. He says they want to goad the Agriculture Department into allowing in enough sugar to drive down prices paid to U.S. farmers.
"This is a lobbying tactic to loosen restrictions on imports ... to depress the U.S price a little more," Hayes said.
His group expects that the current surplus 1.3 million tons will last through Sept. 30. (Sugar users can begin importing new supplies in October.)
He also noted that past price increases on the world market have been quick to ease: "In 2006, there was a big run-up in world prices due to low supplies. But ... that price fell as quickly as it rose. ... This spike will pass, too."
But wholesale figures, tracked by the Agriculture Department, show a generally rising U.S. price since 2005.
From the 1980s until the devastation of Katrina, which pummeled sugar cane producers in Louisiana, wholesale prices fluctuated between 20 and 30 cents a pound. Since Katrina, only 2007 has seen prices dip to the 20-cent range, a level Hayes says is too low for U.S. farmers to break even.
Kroger, one of the largest grocers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, has received no official notice that sugar prices are going up, said spokesman Gary Huddleston.
Because Kroger buys so much sugar, price increases wouldn't greatly affect its retail price, he said. "We would have large quantities of sugar in our warehouse."
A 4-pound bag of Kroger brand sugar sells for $1.79, Huddleston said, the same price it's been since November.
But for the industry as a whole, he said, "we believe that there will be some supply and price issues."
Patidar said he's been paying more for candy for more than a year. His decision to keep retail prices lower has not been without cost.
"It has brought net profits down," he said. "I can see it when we deposit money and make payments. We are not losing money right now, because we can control many other expenses."
Still, he doesn't think he can hold out much longer:
"To tell you the truth, we need to be a little brave and increase the prices around Thanksgiving."
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