Current:Home > InvestCocoa prices spiked to an all-time high right before Valentine's Day -PrimeFinance
Cocoa prices spiked to an all-time high right before Valentine's Day
View
Date:2025-04-26 09:59:51
As Valentine's Day approaches, the price of cocoa has never been higher.
The cost of the key ingredient in chocolate has been grinding upward for over two years. In the past year, it has more than doubled. This month, it broke the all-time record from 1977, the year before Hershey introduced Reese's Pieces.
"Quite honestly, all of our chocolates have increased in price," says Ginger Park, who has run a chocolate shop named Chocolate Chocolate in Washington, D.C., for 40 years. "We try not to raise the prices on our customers. But, you know, there are times when we have to — we have no choice."
Park's store is a constellation of handcrafted bonbons and nostalgic heart-shaped boxes, shiny chocolate domes and sea salt-studded pillows, with flavors like green tea and shiso-lime, espresso and cardamom. The sweets arrive here from Switzerland, Belgium, Vermont and Kansas City, Mo.
Everywhere, chocolate-makers are feeling the price crunch.
"Pre-pandemic, our Belgian chocolates were around $65 a pound, and they're now $85 a pound," Park says. "So it has really gone up. And the same with artisanal."
Why is cocoa so expensive?
Cocoa's troubles stem from extreme weather in West Africa, where farmers grow the majority of the world's cacao beans.
"There were massive rains, and then there was a massive dry spell coupled with wind," says CoBank senior analyst Billy Roberts. "It led to some pretty harsh growing conditions for cocoa," including pests and disease.
Now, cocoa harvests are coming up short for the third year in a row. Regulators in the top-producing Ivory Coast at one point stopped selling contracts for cocoa exports altogether because of uncertainty over new crops.
Every day, Roberts would check on cocoa futures — which is how investors trade in cocoa — and their price would leap closer to that 47-year-old record. Last week, it jumped over the record and kept going. Already this year, cocoa has recorded one of the biggest price gains of all commodities traded in the United States.
Stores charge more, but shoppers can't stop, won't stop
Major candy manufacturers, including Nestlé and Cadbury, have been raising prices to offset the higher costs — of mainly cocoa, but also sugar and wages. They've signaled more price hikes could come later this year.
Chocolate lovers won't see a sudden price spike this week for Valentine's Day. That's because costs have already risen steadily for months. With a new crop not coming for months, Roberts says, Easter and especially Halloween could see the worst of it.
"Given where cocoa prices are, we will be using every tool in our toolbox, including pricing, as a way to manage the business," Hershey CEO Michele Buck said during an earnings call on Thursday.
Surveys and data show that some shoppers have started to switch to cheaper chocolate or buy a bit less. Sweets included, retailers are still forecasting that each shopper on average will spend more on this Valentine's Day than they did in the past five years.
"Honestly, we have not felt the effects from our customers," says Park. "And I don't know if it's because they know everything has gone up and they understand — or they're just chocoholics like us."
After all, chocolate is a special kind of spending — a treat that delivers a boost of happiness, Park adds. Can you really put a price on that?
veryGood! (7932)
Related
- Current, future North Carolina governor’s challenge of power
- Rising temperatures from climate change could threaten rhinos in Africa, researchers say.
- Man sentenced to 3 years of probation for making threatening call to US House member
- White House to meet with families of Americans taken hostage by Hamas
- Meet the volunteers risking their lives to deliver Christmas gifts to children in Haiti
- Thoughtful & Chic Valentine's Day Gifts (That She'll Actually Use)
- 'The Last Fire Season' describes what it was like to live through Calif.'s wildfires
- The 10 greatest movies of Sundance Film Festival, from 'Clerks' to 'Napoleon Dynamite'
- Why Sean "Diddy" Combs Is Being Given a Laptop in Jail Amid Witness Intimidation Fears
- Where is the coldest city in the U.S. today? Here's where temperatures are lowest right now.
Ranking
- Louvre will undergo expansion and restoration project, Macron says
- In larger U.S. cities, affording a home is tough even for people with higher income
- Mike McCarthy will return as Dallas Cowboys head coach, despite stunning playoff ouster
- As Gaza's communication blackout grinds on, some fear it is imperiling lives
- South Korean president's party divided over defiant martial law speech
- Grading Pascal Siakam trade to Pacers. How Raptors, Pelicans also made out
- What to know about the Justice Department’s report on police failures in the Uvalde school shooting
- Police in Brazil arrest the alleged killer of a Manhattan art dealer
Recommendation
Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time
Canadian world champion pole vaulter Shawn Barber dies at 29 from medical complications
Mississippi legislators consider incentives for a factory that would make EV batteries
The 3 ingredients for fun: an expert's formula for experiencing genuine delight
IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
A look inside the Icon of the Seas, the world's biggest cruise ship, as it prepares for voyage
Penny the 10-foot shark surfaces near Florida, marking nearly 5,000 miles in her journey
Brittany Mahomes Trolls Patrick Mahomes For Wearing Crocs to Chiefs Photo Shoot