Romain Rouillard / Photo credit: ROMAIN DOUCELIN / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 9:00 a.m., March 27, 2024

Easter chocolates will not escape a further increase in their prices this year, due in particular to the surge in cocoa prices, which even exceeded $10,000 per tonne this Tuesday in New York. A trend linked, in part, to climatic factors, which will not affect all chocolates in the same way.

Can we celebrate Easter without chocolate? To this question, many French people would certainly answer in the negative. Each year, several tonnes are sold on the occasion of this Christian festival which ends Lent. But this year, getting the traditional chocolate eggs, bells, rabbits and other chickens could represent a certain budget.

The world price of cocoa has increased by 162% in the space of a year, according to the eToro trading and investment platform. An outbreak which even reaches 201% compared to Easter 2022, to reach 10,000 dollars per tonne this Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. To understand the reason, we must head to Ivory Coast and Ghana, the world's two leading producers of "brown gold". This region of West Africa is bearing the brunt of the harmful effects of the El Niño climatic phenomenon. Thus, the intense drought, followed by torrential rains which fell on the crops, caused a significant slowdown in overall production. 

“We are witnessing a scarcity of the product” 

“This caused a certain amount of rot and mold on the trees. And then, as every time we have exceptional climatic phenomena, we saw the appearance of diseases, a bit like in the vines,” explains Thierry Lalet, president of the Confederation of Chocolatiers and Confectioners of France. An infection, known as "swollen shoot" or cocoa shoot edema virus, has proliferated in cocoa fields, thereby reducing the harvest. “It’s not mildew, but it’s a bit the same process,” illustrates Thierry Lalet.

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Reduced production while, at the same time, chocolate consumption is increasing around the world. “We are therefore witnessing a scarcity of the product,” notes Thierry Lalet, who also raises a detrimental trend in bean production. "For a very long time, producing cocoa was very poorly paid in Ivory Coast and Ghana. Some therefore stopped planting cocoa, in favor of rubber trees for example. At the beginning, it was not obvious, we didn't realize it, because consumption and global demand were more or less balanced. But as for two years, it has only been increasing, we realized that there was a lack of cocoa for everyone" . 

Artisanal chocolatiers less penalized

However, this increase in the cost of raw materials will not be reflected in the same way on all chocolates. It is indeed appropriate to make a distinction between artisanal and industrial chocolatiers. The latter, like the Swiss Lindt which has already announced an increase of 5% compared to 2023, anticipate the increase in the price of cocoa for their future production. “At Lindt, Easter chocolates have been made for a very long time, here, they are more in the process of making Christmas ones. And as consumption is going to be high, they are already applying an increase even if they have not paid the cocoa at a high price", deciphers Thierry Lalet. Not to mention the number of intermediaries, often larger, who force manufacturers to pay commissions each time. 

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Conversely

, artisanal chocolatiers operate according to a radically different model. “We are not on the same supply process. The beans we use are off the market, we work much more with cooperatives and we have fewer intermediaries,” explains Thierry Lalet. If the increase in prices should thus be contained, customers will not escape, in the coming months, a slight inflation linked to the increase in the costs of energy, packaging, but also wages.