Price explosion for cocoa
Chocolate will probably be significantly more expensive
February 25, 2024, 7:50 a.m
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The price of cocoa has reached a record. The raw material now costs more than twice as much as it did a year ago. Chocolate lovers could soon feel this when shopping. Climate change is primarily to blame for this.
Because of the high price of cocoa, consumers may soon have to spend more money on chocolate. “Increased raw material prices and wages can lead to cost increases, which could tend to be passed on to the consumer,” said Solveig Schneider, deputy managing director of the Federal Association of the German Confectionery Industry (BDSI).
A spokesman for the chocolate manufacturer Ritter Sport explained: “A kilo of cocoa is almost three euros more expensive than it was a year ago. Everyone can calculate for themselves what this means for the production costs of a 100 gram chocolate bar, which contains between 35 and 70 percent cocoa “But we are currently assessing the situation as a whole.” Ritter Sport does not want to comment on a possible price increase for antitrust reasons.
Michele Buck, head of the US company Hershey, one of the world’s largest confectionery manufacturers, recently did not rule out an increase in prices. “Given the current situation with cocoa prices, we will use every tool in our toolbox, including pricing, to manage the business,” she said in mid-February when presenting the group’s financial figures. The Swiss food giant Nestlé also did not rule out further price increases.
The price for a ton of raw cocoa rose to a record high of almost 5,500 euros on the raw material exchanges in February. At the beginning of January the price was under 4,000 euros and in February last year it was under 2,500 euros.
According to experts, the reason for the rapid price increase is a shortage of supply, also as a result of climate-related extreme weather events. Longer periods of drought, heavy rain, floods and plant diseases have recently led to significantly lower yields or even completely destroyed harvests in growing countries such as Ivory Coast and Ghana.