For many Americans celebrating Easter, the holidays are incomplete without chocolate: chocolate rabbits and eggs, bars nestled in Easter baskets, candy hidden in plastic eggs for Easter eggs.
But rocket cocoa costs will mean higher prices for chocolate candies this year, and Donald Trump prices on all imports will probably maintain high prices in the foreseeable future.
Each year, the Americans spend billions of dollars for candies during what National Confiderers Association calls “the four big seasons of candies”: Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween and holidays. Last year, the Americans spent $ 5.4 billion in Easter candies, according to the association.
But the price of chocolate candies has specifically increased in the past year, largely because of the cocoa arrow, the key ingredient of chocolate. In 2023, farmers in West Africa – where 70% of the world’s cocoa is harvested – began to fight against climate -related crises, including drought and plant diseases, which decimated their cocoa production.
Estimates have put the cocoa deficit at more than 400,000 tonnes, considerably inflating the price of cocoa in recent years. Cocoa has cost $ 2,000 per tonne in recent decades. In 2024, he culminated at more than $ 12,000.
This has led the prices of chocolate to cross the world. Hershey, the largest producer of chocolate in the United States, increased the prices of his chocolates last year and finally had trouble maintaining consumer demand. The company achieved its worst profit in seven years in 2024.
Chocolate is particularly sensitive to price increases because it is an article in grocery store that does not really have substitutes, said Joseph Balagtas, professor of agricultural economy at Purdue University. This is why the price of eggs has increased so much, and why the paint of potatoes does not work quite.
“If you know that you are going to grill this weekend and the chicken prices are high, you may be more likely to make hamburgers or pork chops rather than chicken breast,” said Balagtas. “But chocolate chocolate cookies are a bit difficult.”
And now, with Trump’s new prices in place, the price of chocolate should increase even more. While economists do not know exactly what the effects of prices will look like, the Yale budget laboratory estimates that prices may cost consumers $ 4,900 per year, with an average price increase of 3% of all goods.
Chocolate prices will be no exception. When Trump presented his latest list of prices in early April, he had a direct message for American companies. “If you want your rate rate to be zero,” he said, “then you build your product here in America.”
For many companies deeply linked to the global supply chain, moving manufacturing in the United States is complicated and expensive. For chocolate manufacturers, it’s impossible.
The cocoa plant, which produces cocoa, can only be cultivated in tropical climates, of which there are only two in the United States: Hawaii and Puerto Rico. This means that the vast majority of cocoa consumed in the United States are imported.
“The United States produces, I will generously say that 100 tonnes of cocoa per year,” said Greg of Alesandre, co-owner and “source” for dandelion chocolate in San Francisco. “We use about 120 tonnes of cocoa per year, and dandelion is considered a very, very small chocolate. There is no chance that (the United States) can make all the cocoa we really need. ”
This means that large and small chocolate manufacturers are affected by universal prices. Not only do chocolate producers be concerned about the high price of cocoa, but also inflation in other parts of their manufacturing process.
“I am more concerned with price packaging,” said Oliver Holecek, owner of Primo Chocolate based in Troy, New York. “Most paper manufacturing occurs in China, and there are not many good resources in the United States yet.”
Shipping prices could also be affected by prices, because congestion accumulates in American ports while businesses attack new prices.
All of this is added to an unstable environment, especially for small chocolate companies that do not have the leverage and resources as major manufacturers.
While Dandelion had to increase prices last year in the middle of the increase in cocoa prices, Alesandre said that it was not clear how the company’s customers will react to new increases.
“I have known three chocolate manufacturers who have made their doors in the past three years because there are too many price disorders,” said Alesandre. “It is very difficult to make a plan for that … We do our best to make plans, but a large part of the wait is to wait.”
