"Two hundred and fifty years ago, America's love affair with chocolate and candy began," Downs said, noting that in 1773, three years before America declared its independence, its colonies sourced 320 tons of cocoa to meet demand, as its citizens were now drinking chocolate instead of tea.

At the next session, Anne-Marie Roerink, president, 210 Analytics, presented NCA's State of Treating 2026 report. The big takeaway was that Americans spent $55 billion on confectionery last year, and 99.8% of households purchased confectionery products at least once. Roerink explained that we currently have a "K-shaped" economy, meaning that part of the U.S. population is financially secure, but there is also a portion that is struggling.

That being said, consumers would rather buy less of their favorite brands, but still have their favorite treats, versus trying to make their dollars go further by buying a brand new to them, she says.

After lunch, conference-goers had three choices of panels to attend: "Cocoa Today, Cocoa Tomorrow," with speakers from Blommer and Cargill; "Navigating the Seasonal Landscape for Chocolate and Candy," with panelists from Whole Foods, Walmart, and Five Below; or "Make It Land: Communicate and Present with Confidence," with conference emcee Mark Jeffries. 

At the cocoa session, Hugo van der Goes, SVP, commercial, Blommer, joked that he thought he was prepared to share insights about his part of the panel, "Cocoa Tomorrow," but then heard an economist say that they could not even predict the sector three months out (thus making van der Goes' job of predicting the next five years rather difficult). However, the overall news was good, to an extent: there will be a notable cocoa surplus for 2025/26, predicted van der Goes and Anna Flaig, senior director commercial - cocoa and chocolate North America, Cargill, and in Q4 of this year, chocolate prices for consumers should stabilize a bit.

The last General Session of the day was a fireside chat with Jeffries and Kirk Tanner, the new president and CEO of Hershey. Jeffries noted that Tanner is stepping into his role at the company at a dynamic time, with a lot going on, and asked Tanner what he finds the most energizing or challenging about the role.

"The opportunity ... for growth and innovation is so important and that is what brings you the greatest joy. If you work on an idea, and that idea comes to life, and you see it on shelf or digitally, you're really proud of that. When you get asked what you do—people are proud to make things happen for consumers, and that ... gives you a love for the business," Tanner shares.

The session finished with a chat with "serial entrepreneur" Gary Vaynerchuk, fresh off his Expo West keynote, on "Day Trading Attention: Building Brand Love at the Speed of Treating." Vaynerchuk has approximately 50 million followers across his various social media platforms, and spoke about how producers can gain consumers' attention online.

"[A] human being with a large audience has a lot of leverage, compared to corporations—much bigger than people realize. Midsize companies, retailers—and brands—need to start acting more like creators, not the reverse," he advised. 

He recommended sending creators DMs (direct messages) on social media, saying they would be thrilled to hear from any brand in the confectionery category for collaboration purposes. 

Vaynerchuk was surprised when he took an informal poll of the audience and found out that most of the confectionery personnel in the room did not have a TikTok account, as he mentioned that the app can act as a tool to make products go viral—such as Walgreens' private-label peelable gummies. The gummies were completely sold out from all Walgreens stores after a consumer posted an organic (non-sponsored) TikTok post in January 2024, which received 8.9 million views.

NCA's SOTIC will continue tomorrow with a keynote on innovation from Sally Lyons Wyatt, Circana, plus sessions on navigating natural ingredients, social media and AI, and regulatory policies. It will conclude with a session entitled "From the Sidelines to the C-Suite," with former Alabama football coach Nick Saban.

Related: NCA-owned website debuts fresh look, enhanced resources