Five factors driving up chocolate prices

As some consider giving things up as part of New Year resolutions one University of Oxford researcher has claimed that one luxury, chocolate, should no longer be relied upon as affordable.

The price of chocolate has gone up by 15% in the past year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

And Dr Tonya Lander, of the Oxford Martin School Programme on the Future of Food, has explored five factors driving prices up.

These are the El Niño weather phenomenon, climate change, the challenges of tree crops, trade tariffs and the impact of people in Ghana moving from cocoa production to gold mining.

She said her research was inspired by a Ghanaian student, whose country, along with Cote d'Ivoire and Indonesia, are among major global cocoa producers.

Dr Lander said cocoa prices had been "pretty stable" for the past 25 years.

"Then two years ago, it shot up to £8,000 per metric tonne, quadrupling the price," she said.

Hampshire chocolatier John Tordoff had felt that impact.

He said that while supply had remained stable, "prices are still very high despite some recent market settling".

"Dark chocolate in particular has seen the biggest increases due to its higher cocoa content," he said.

He runs his home-based business The Chocolate John near Basingstoke, predominantly trading from Silchester.

When he started trading in 2023, he was looking to offer "something distinctive" and said that initially, "the pricing allowed for sustainable growth".

But now he has increased his prices by about 18% for customers, while absorbing "a significant portion of the additional costs".

Rumsey's Handmade Chocolates' Kate Rumsey said plans to grow its business through wholesale channels "has now become unsustainable".

The independent family chocolaterie has been trading since 2007 in Thame, Oxfordshire, and 2004 in Wendover, Buckinghamshire.

"We haven't changed the recipes for twenty years and aren't about to start doing that now," Mrs Rumsey said.

She added that reporting on cocoa prices had helped most customers understand its increases.

Mr Tordoff plans to expand his range with products that use less chocolate "but still deliver on quality and flavour".

"Tasting the product helps [customers] understand how quality is reflected in the price," he said.

Mrs Rumsey said they used local products for their other ingredients "wherever possible", such as cream from a local dairy.

Dr Lander has a similar message to consumers - "seeking out and exploring the origins of the things we're buying".

"Buying organic and fair trade and rainforest certified, where you're supporting farmers in pursuing these more sustainable production methods, I think it can be really valuable."

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