International News

The Price of Cocoa Rising

Author : Bozhou Marine

Update time : 2024-04-03 14:08:46

This week, cocoa futures prices in New York and London hit record highs.

Since the beginning of this year, the price of cocoa futures in New York has increased by 135%. In the one year since March last year, the cumulative increase has been as high as 250%, far exceeding the increase in gold prices during the same period.

Data show that chocolate sales in the United States will increase by 5.8% in 2023, which is significantly lower than the 12.1% annual sales growth of non-chocolate candies. The annual sales of chocolate will not increase but decrease, shrinking by 5.3% compared with 2022. This suggests that consumers are particularly sensitive to food price fluctuations in a high-inflation environment.

In order to reduce cost pressure, American chocolate giant Hershey recently announced that it will launch new products such as caramel-filled chocolate and lemon-flavored chocolate bars. It will avoid product price increases by adding more flavored raw materials and reducing the proportion of cocoa contained in chocolate candies.

In Switzerland, which ranks first in the world in per capita chocolate consumption, data shows that in 2023, Swiss per capita purchased nearly 11 kilograms of chocolate, a slight decrease from 2022. Swiss consumers prefer delicious and affordable domestic chocolate to imported chocolate, which continues to rise in price.

Thomas Juch, public affairs director of the Swiss Chocolate Producers Association, said that as much as 60% of the chocolate consumed by Swiss people is domestically produced, compared with only 20% ten years ago. It can be seen from the data that Swiss consumers are more sensitive to price changes.

Michael Landin, the head of an organic chocolate brand in Switzerland, said: “We purchase cream, butter, flowers and eggs from local raw material suppliers. The cost of this part is much lower than the foreign middlemen we used to cooperate with. This method helps me save money. It’s a lot of cost.”

Affected by climate change, crop diseases and other factors, the world is facing the most serious cocoa supply shortage in more than 60 years. The West African countries Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana are the world's leading cocoa producers. Some consulting agencies predict that from April to September this year, Côte d'Ivoire's cocoa production may decline by 25% to 30% year-on-year. It is expected that in the fourth quarter of this year, the United States and Europe During the year-end holidays, the retail price of chocolate candies will continue to rise.

www.bozhou-int.com | Marine Light

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