CHICAGO — Orders have been pouring into Andrew Schuman’s candy cane business this year, but business has been anything but sweet.

“We’re not taking new orders from new customers,” said Mr. Schuman, chief executive officer of Hammond’s, based in Denver, Colorado. “We can’t keep up with demand.”

Candy makers, like retailers and farmers, have been slammed during the pandemic with high commodity prices, labor shortages, and transportation and supply chain snarls, preventing them from fully cashing in on the holiday season.

For more than a century, Hammond’s Candies has twisted and packed up the classic Christmas treat for tiny gift shops and massive grocers alike. It is the largest wholesale supplier of US handmade candy canes.

This year, Hammond’s labor costs have increased 30%, yet staffing remains a problem: The company’s 250-person crew is down nearly 100 people.

Hammond’s is not alone.

When Sam’s Club, a Walmart unit, placed an order for Doscher’s Candy Co.’s gourmet candy canes, co-owner Greg Clark was thrilled. Still, he said, Doscher’s had staff and supplies to produce about 70% of the hand-crafted candies Sam’s Club wanted.

“More and more Sam’s Club members are shopping for seasonal candy, including candy canes,” a company spokeswoman said. “In an effort to meet the anticipated demand, we increased buys from other suppliers and pulled inventory and production forward where possible.”

Total seasonal confectionery sales are up 20% over last year, for the five-week period ending Dec. 5, according to the National Confectioners Association and IRI market data. Winter holiday non-chocolate sales — including candy canes — are up more than 34% from 2020.

Retailers have increased holiday candy items per store by more than 9%; and the total amount of non-chocolate products in stores is up nearly 23%, according to the data.

Many consumers are scrambling to stock up for the holidays after missing family gatherings last year.

“This is the fourth grocery store I’ve hit today, trying to find enough candy canes for our tree and stockings,” grumbled Terri Andresson, 51, browsing at Mariano’s grocery store in Chicago.

Kroger Co., which owns Mariano’s, declined to comment.

Spangler Candy Co., the largest US candy cane maker, ran extra shifts this fall to meet demand, said president Kirk Vashaw. The Ohio-based firm turned away business and faced supply-chain headaches.

“We would have the cherry flavoring scheduled to come in on Monday, but the trucks were delayed, so we would have to stop and switch over to raspberry,” Mr. Vashaw said.

SUGAR SHORTAGES
Facing tight global supplies, some sugar suppliers have limited sales to food manufacturers.

The US imports about a quarter of its annual sugar needs, according to US Department of Agriculture data. A swath of this year’s domestic crop was destroyed when Hurricane Ida tore across Louisiana, the nation’s second-largest sugarcane producing state.

Meanwhile, freight prices are soaring, and Brazil and Thailand — two of the world’s top sugar producers — had smaller-than-expected crops. Sugar prices are at a decade-high.

“I’ve heard that some commercial buyers are looking at erythritol as a substitute sweetener,” said Bob Cymbala, a food trader at A&J Global USA, referring to a sugar substitute made from corn.

But prices are rising for corn-based sweeteners too. Clark from Doscher’s Candy said suppliers of corn syrup — used to make candy canes — are quoting a 10% hike in 2022.

As sugar supplies tightened, the US government adjusted sugar import quotas after some overseas sugar suppliers failed to deliver the product.

Rick Pasco, president of the Sweetener Users Association trade group, said candy producers are hurt by the US sugar policy, which limits imports to protect local growers.

“We are only getting a fraction of what we need,” Mr. Pasco said. — Reuters

JERUSALEM — Crusader-era bells and organ pipes from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem are inspiring researchers’ efforts to re-create music as it may have sounded in the birthplace of Jesus during almost 800 years ago.

Worried they might otherwise be destroyed, mid-13^th century Crusaders buried the 13 bronze bells near the church on the eve of a Muslim offensive, slathering them in animal fat to protect them from rust, said David Catalunya, who is leading a project to build facsimiles of them.

“It’s a very long process, not only in terms of constructing the materiality of the instruments but also its cultural context and its intellectual context,” said Mr. Catalunya, a researcher from the universities of Oxford and Wuerzburg, Germany.

With the exploratory research phase complete, he estimates it will take about five years to cast fully functioning copies.

Meanwhile, a knock of the knuckles is enough to bring a clear, high-pitched chime from the originals, whose clappers have long since rotted away — as demonstrated to Reuters at the Custody of the Holy Land for the Roman Catholic church, which holds the unique collection.

“It’s half of the original sound, (which) was much richer and louder and a little bit lower,” Mr. Catalunya said.

The bells were part of a carillon that accompanied chants inside the church, said Franciscan friar Father Stephane, the Custody’s liturgist.

They were discovered in the early 20^th century, along with 222 Medieval copper pipes from the Church of the Nativity’s organ, during construction at the church’s Franciscan compound, Father Stephane said.

The collection also includes the scepter of the Bishop of Bethlehem and candlesticks from the 12^th century which, according to Mr. Catalunya, were made in France, suggesting a shared provenance with the bells and organ pipes, which Father Stephane says are the oldest in Christendom.

Father Stephane said he hoped the collection would be displayed, and played, at a Jerusalem museum the Custody plans to open by 2024.

“These bells are very significant for us because they are the bells of Bethlehem (and a) symbol of Nativity in the Christian world,” he said. — Reuters