admin Valentine’s chocolates have always been a symbol of love. This year, they might also be a symbol of how deep your pockets are.
With cocoa bean prices reaching unprecedented highs in the commodities market, the classic gift of love has become a greater financial commitment. While love may be eternal, low cocoa prices certainly are not.
No beans, no Valentine’s chocolate
“The rise in cocoa prices is absolutely spectacular, and has been for the past two to two-and-a-half years,” said Philippe de Sellier, head of both Leonidas and the Belgian chocolate federation Choprabisco. Cocoa was priced at under $2,000 per tonne in the summer of 2022, but surged early last year, peaking at well over $12,000 during the Christmas season. Since then, it has hovered around the $10,000 mark.
“We are witnessing unprecedented prices. They haven’t been this high in the last 50 years,” said Bart Van Besien, policy adviser at the Oxfam fair trade group. The impact is being felt deeply in Belgium, home to around 280 chocolate companies, where many chocolatiers are struggling to keep up during Valentine’s week.
Dominique Persoone, owner of the renowned Chocolate Line brand, still has enough beans to keep his workshop in Bruges running, thanks in part to his own cocoa plantation in Mexico.
“I have many colleagues who are really struggling because the price is too high,” he said. “If you don’t have good contacts, suppliers simply stop delivering.”
Some chocolatiers have even chosen to close for Valentine’s Day, turning what is usually a profitable period into an enforced break. Many hope that Easter, with its eggs and bunnies, will bring better fortunes. With cocoa prices soaring, many cannot afford their usual profit margins and are unable to pass all the additional costs onto customers. Persoone noted that his chocolate prices have risen by 20% over the past year, while de Sellier said price increases vary from producer to producer.
The perfect chocolate storm
The surge in cocoa prices is the result of a perfect storm, combining climate change, disease, commodity speculation, struggling farmers, and rising global demand.
“The current drop in production is directly linked to climate change,” said Van Besien, pointing to shifts in rainfall and drought patterns in West Africa, which have weakened the delicate cocoa trees in key growing regions. Persoone also highlighted increasing temperature differences between day and night in the narrow equatorial belt where cocoa trees thrive. Combined with crop diseases, this has led to multiple failed harvests.
Meanwhile, rising global prosperity has driven up demand for chocolate, particularly as middle-class populations grow in countries like China.
Worsening the situation, years of low cocoa prices forced many farmers to abandon their land in search of better opportunities in cities, further reducing production. De Sellier stressed the need for fairer wages, stating, “Sixty per cent of the world’s cocoa comes from Ivory Coast and Ghana, and these farmers must earn a better living. It is crucial.”
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