Guillaume Dominguez / Photo credits: CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP 9:40 a.m., February 21, 2024
The price of cocoa has soared to historic levels for 50 years. The reason: bad weather conditions. The price of a tonne has even crossed the $6,000 mark on average. As Easter approaches, the consequences of this increase will be directly felt on the chocolate market.
REPORTING
The price of cocoa is soaring to historic levels. In the space of a year and a half, the price of a tonne of cocoa has doubled due to pressure on production, degraded in particular by poor weather conditions. The price of cocoa has indeed jumped at rates not seen in 50 years. That of a ton has even crossed the $6,000 mark on average, a historic level since 1977.
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As Easter approaches, the consequences of this increase will be directly felt on the chocolate market. Europe 1 visited the laboratory of one of the great French chocolatiers, Patrick Roger.
“We find ourselves buying less cocoa”
In the center of a huge hangar, a kilo of cocoa tablets the size of a coin is scattered on a stainless steel work surface. With a piece of cocoa in hand, Patrick Roger tastes the last delivery of his raw material. “I have fair trade and organic cocoa here. Normally, we pay between $2,000 and $3,000 per ton and since Covid-19, that has only increased,” he regrets.
According to Patrick Roger, this same high-quality cocoa sells today for nearly 7,000 euros per ton. The French chef estimates the increase in raw materials to be more than 30% on average depending on his suppliers. Despite everything, he decided not to charge consumers for this increase. "I don't want to increase because I know very well that we are going to lose customers. Now, we find ourselves buying less cocoa, so everything that was extra disappears. We have removed all the products that are above 20 euros", explains Patrick Roger.
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A simplification of production with immediate effect on the collection of Easter chocolates, as Raphaël, one of the chocolatiers, explains to us. "For each subject, we made different shapes and bases. Now, for all the subjects, we are going to do the same thing to save time. And so that it all costs as little as possible and so that we can keep the margins,” he explains. 50,000 subjects will be produced this year for Easter, compared to nearly 70,000 last year at the same period.