In the near future, chocolate manufacturers will be able to reduce the size of bars or their cocoa content. The reason is the rise in the cost of cocoa to record levels due to supply problems from West Africa.
Join
Bloomberg reports, citing industry representatives, that the cost of cocoa beans has more than doubled over the past year. According to Barry Callebaut, the largest producer of high-quality chocolate, the severe cocoa shortage will continue into the next season.
The reasons for the sharp rise in cocoa prices are problems with the harvest, especially in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, the world’s largest cocoa exporters. Furthermore, the complexity of supply chains is influenced by EU legislation: from the end of 2024, exporters will have to provide evidence that the production of goods did not cause deforestation.
Due to limited quantities of raw materials, companies are forced to resort to measures such as promoting products with lower cocoa content. For example, bars with a partial layer of chocolate coating instead of a full one.
In addition, some types of cocoa butter will be replaced by cheaper alternatives such as palm oil.
New York cocoa futures are trading at their highest level in history: at the end of February their price exceeded $6.9 thousand per ton; At the close of the market on Friday, the price per ton of cocoa beans was $6,299.
Author:
Akhmed Sadulayev
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
