Chocolate cravings are going to get more expensive to satisfy

Bad news has emerged this week for chocolate lovers: it's going to get more expensive to satisfy your cravings.

The cost of wholesale cocoa beans soared to the highest level in more than a decade, and manufacturers are betting prices of the key chocolate ingredient will stay elevated through 2024. That's mainly because production in West Africa, a region that accounts for two-thirds of the world's bean harvest, is faltering.

Heavy rains and a rot-causing disease have ravaged crops there, sparking concerns about supply. Bean processing has also slumped around the world which is crucial for turning products into chocolate indicating that factories are struggling to access adequate volumes, according to Fuad Mohammed Abubakar, the head of Ghana Cocoa Marketing Company UK.


That's prompted executives from top manufacturers Lindt & Spruengli AG and Hershey Co. to warn this week that further price hikes can't be ruled out, even after consumers have already had to swallow higher costs for their products.A

"We clearly are in a very tight situation," said Paul Joules, a cocoa analyst at Rabobank in London. "We could see chocolate companies adopt smaller chocolate bars and potentially higher prices."

The world's biggest cocoa producer Ivory Coast is expected to see its upcoming harvest shrink by nearly a fifth from last year, and has suspended sales that bind farmers to delivering goods at specified times in the future. In Ghana, the second-biggest cocoa producer, output is set to fall below historical averages.