The firm added that the increases are part of a global trend fuelled by climate change, economic pressure, and supply chain disruptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Eighty20, Chocolate has experienced double-digit inflation in most years since 2020, significantly outpacing CPI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs of 2024, chocolate bars are now 40% more expensive than they were in December 2021,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The firm added that chocolate inflation was 11.6% in 2024 alone, describing the product as \u201ca notable casualty of global economic pressures, climate change, and supply chain pressures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reuters noted that one of the main contributors to the surge in prices is the skyrocketing cost of cocoa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Global cocoa prices have soared almost 300% over the past year, peaking at $12,565 per metric tonne in December 2024. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The situation is being driven by poor weather and disease outbreaks in major cocoa-producing regions, particularly Ghana and the Ivory Coast, which together account for two-thirds of the world\u2019s cocoa supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While cocoa exports from the Ivory Coast briefly increased in early 2025, temporarily easing prices, that relief has proven short-lived. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The country has since flagged tighter supply expectations, which has pushed futures in the opposite direction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Concerns about the quality of the current mid-crop harvest, running through September, have only added to market anxiety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCocoa processors are complaining about the crop\u2019s quality and have rejected truckloads of Ivory Coast cocoa beans,\u201d Reuters reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cProcessors said about 5% to 6% of the mid-crop cocoa in each truckload is poor quality, compared with 1% during the main crop.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n This quality drop is blamed on late-arriving rains, which hurt crop development and could lead to a 9% decline in yield from the previous season. South African chocolate producers and retailers are already feeling the pinch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Anthony Gird, co-founder of Honest Chocolate, a Cape Town-based artisanal chocolate company, said that cocoa prices are rising due to climate change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is affecting production in West Africa, and quality dark chocolate is getting more expensive, and that\u2019s likely to continue for the next couple of years,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Consumers are also feeling the pain. Data from Eighty20 showed that more than half of adult South Africans (52%) have eaten some form of chocolate in the past month, and a third of the population enjoy a chocolate bar every week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Eighty20 pointed out the strong consumer loyalty behind chocolate bars despite price hikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cChocolate continues to be one of our most beloved guilty pleasures, a small indulgence that delivers big on satisfaction.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Data from the Marketing Research Foundation\u2019s quarterly MAPS survey (based on a 20,000-person sample) listed the top five chocolate bars in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are Bar-One, Lunch Bar, Aero, Black Cat, and Kit Kat, each consumed by over a million people per week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The survey noted that Aero and Black Cat tend to appeal to higher-income consumers, while Lunch Bar and Kit Kat have broader appeal across income levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite its global identity as a sweet treat often associated with Switzerland, most chocolate comes from different origins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Africa is a cocoa hotspot, with four of the top five exporters. C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon account for nearly half (46%) of all cocoa bean exports.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Germany leads in chocolate exports, contributing 16.3% of the global market, followed by Belgium, Poland, Italy, and the Netherlands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2024, the global chocolate export market was worth $43.8 billion, with the US and UK collectively importing nearly 20% of that total.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" South Africans are facing significant price increases, with no relief expected in the near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":831800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[22790,17573,853],"class_list":["post-831793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-cocoa-prices","tag-eighty20","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831793"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":831802,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831793\/revisions\/831802"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Africa is ground zero<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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