After bread and beer

Now chocolate is also becoming significantly more expensive

(Bild: dpa/Oliver Berg)

The rise in food prices is causing consumers a lot of trouble. The increase in grain prices has recently led to higher prices for bread and beer. And soon we will also have to dig deeper into our wallets for a bar of chocolate ...

"Increased raw material prices and wages can lead to cost increases, which could tend to be passed on to the consumer," said Solveig Schneider, Deputy Managing Director of the Federal Association of the German Confectionery Industry (BDSI).

Massive rise in cocoa prices
A spokesperson for chocolate manufacturer Ritter Sport explained: "A kilo of cocoa is almost three euros more expensive than it was a year ago. Anyone can work out for themselves what this means for the production costs of a 100-gram chocolate bar, which contains between 35 and 70 percent cocoa, but we are currently assessing the situation as a whole." Ritter Sport does not want to comment on a possible price increase for antitrust reasons.

Cocoa beans

(Bild: thinkstockphotos.de)

Michele Buck, CEO of the US company Hershey, one of the world's largest confectionery manufacturers, recently did not rule out a price increase. "Given the current cocoa price environment, we will use every tool in our toolbox, including pricing, to manage the business," she said in mid-February at the presentation of the group's financial results. The Swiss food giant Nestlé also did not rule out further price increases.

The price of a tonne of raw cocoa rose to a record high of almost 5,500 euros on the commodity exchanges in February. At the beginning of January, the price was still below 4000 euros, in February last year it was below 2500 euros. According to experts, the reason for the rapid price increase is a shortage of supply, partly as a result of climate-related extreme weather events. Prolonged periods of drought, heavy rainfall, flooding and plant diseases have recently led to significantly lower yields or even completely destroyed harvests in growing countries such as the Ivory Coast and Ghana.