As of: February 26, 2024, 5:12 a.m
By: Julia Hanigk
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Inflation and climate change are driving up cocoa prices.
Chocolate lovers have to be prepared for higher costs.
Kassel - Food prices rose by 3.8 percent compared to the previous month of January, the Federal Statistical Office announced in February 2024.
Apparently chocolate is also affected by this.
Stock market price rises by 150 percent in one year
Their main ingredient, cocoa, is becoming more and more expensive; the raw material is currently more rare and expensive than ever before.
The price for a ton of raw cocoa on the London Commodity Exchange recently reached a new high - the equivalent of almost 5,500 euros.
Within a year, the price has increased by an impressive 150 percent, and by 50 percent since the beginning of January 2024 alone.
For comparison: the cocoa price was below 4,000 euros at the beginning of January and even below 2,500 euros in February 2023.
Since cocoa is the main ingredient in chocolate, consumers in Germany will probably have to prepare for the fact that they will soon have to dig deeper into their pockets for their favorite sweet.
Companies express caution – “use every tool”
“Given the current state of cocoa prices, we will use every tool in our toolbox, including pricing, to manage the business,” said Michele Buck, CEO of US company Hershey (KitKat and M&Ms), in February at the unveiling of the Business figures.
Alexander von Maillot, German head of the Swiss food giant Nestlé, also made a similar statement.
A representative of the 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 that contains between 35 and 70 percent cocoa, but we are currently assessing the situation as a whole.” Solveig Schneider, deputy managing director of the Federal Association of the German Confectionery Industry (BDSI) , added: “Increased raw material prices and wages may lead to cost increases, which could tend to be passed on to the consumer.”
However, how prices will develop for customers in supermarkets remains uncertain.
Mondelez, the company behind Milka products, said that setting end-consumer prices is the responsibility of food retailers.
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Significantly less cocoa available – climate change is to blame
But it's not just general inflation that's responsible for the chocolate woes.
The problem also lies in the offer.
There is significantly less raw material available on the market.
Climate change is making cocoa cultivation much more difficult.
60 percent of the world's cocoa comes from Ivory Coast and Ghana.
According to the environmental organization WWF, more frequent extreme weather events such as long periods of drought, heavy rain and floods have not only impaired the quality of the cocoa, but also reduced yields and completely destroyed some harvests.
Potential growing areas are becoming fewer and fewer.
But the heavy rain has other effects: plant diseases can spread further in monocultures.
This also applies to aphids, which can be blamed for the death of cocoa trees.
A WWF environmental scientist estimates that around 17 percent of all trees in Ghana are affected.
Chocolate could soon become more expensive.
(Symbolic photo) © Carmen Jaspersen/dpa/picture alliance
Sugar and cocoa butter are also more expensive – sales figures are still stable
In addition to the increased cocoa prices, other ingredients such as sugar have also become more expensive.
According to BDSI, sugar is 72 percent more expensive than last year.
Cocoa butter prices rose by 52 percent.
Despite the rising prices, the annual per capita consumption of chocolate products in Germany remained stable; in 2023, according to the BDSI, it was 9.3 kilos.
And this despite the fact that the price has risen continuously in recent years, as the consumer advice center explained: “A good 20 years ago the table cost 99 pfennigs, currently 1.49 euros.
So the price has tripled.” In January 2024, the consumer advice centers called for a critical review by politicians and the Federal Cartel Office and advised consumers to compare prices per kilo.
(jh with dpa)
For companies like Mondelez and Lindt & Sprüngli, this has recently meant an increase in sales, as corporate figures also show.
However, increased food prices are not always justified.
Prices for staple foods such as wheat, butter and vegetable oils are partly speculative.
This leads to increased prices, which are not always related to higher manufacturing costs.
A court ruling against a manufacturer recently made headlines: It banned the sale of “deceptive packages” – i.e. less content while the price of a product remains unchanged.
The editor wrote this article and then used an AI language model for optimization at her own discretion. All information has been carefully checked. Find out more about our AI principles here.