Chocolate lovers beware as it may cost more to satisfy your sweet tooth due to the increase in costs for cocoa butter, one of the key ingredients in chocolate.
The price of cocoa butter has jumped more than $7,000 per ton from $4,000 in just six months due to the increased demand for chocolate from Asia's expanding middle class, in addition to a turnaround in sales from big chocolate-consuming countries. It also climbed 17 percent in London and 16 percent in New York this year.
Since demand is not expected to slow as the holiday period approaches, chocolate makers warn that they may have to pass on increased costs to the customers. For the second year in a row, bean producers have been unable to keep up with the demand.
"The reports that we've seen in the U.S. show that for the first time in quite a while, the consumer data looks positive," Kip Walk, corporate director of cocoa and sustainability at Blommer Chocolate Co., North America's biggest processor, said according to UPI.com.
"I'd say that seeing the rapid increase in butter ratios over the past year or so would underscore the fact that demand for chocolate products would be on the increase."
Small chocolate makers have already pushed up prices to offset the raise in costs.
"We have increased our chocolate prices by 30 to 40 percent since January and most of our customers are not happy about it," Richard Lee, chief executive officer of Aalst Chocolate, a Singapore-based chocolatier that sells chocolate to bakeries, ice cream makers and food manufacturers, told Reuters.
"With the festive season just around the corner, the price of (cocoa butter) will rise even further and surely hit the bottom line of chocolate makers," he added.
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