Chocolate costs soar as times get tough for producers

"I don't really think I've known times to be as tough as they are at the moment."

Chocolate lovers would be forgiven for thinking Kate Rumsey, owner of Rumsey's Chocolaterie in Thame, Oxfordshire, has the best job in the world.

But she said soaring cocoa prices, caused by climate change and crop disease, meant times were tough for the business.

"We all thought things would improve after the Covid pandemic," she said. "But things have got worse year-on-year."

Extreme weather and under-investment in farms in West Africa have disrupted cocoa bean plantations, with reduced crop yields as a result.

Severe drought conditions hit the region last year and in December 2023 it experienced intense rains.

The wet and humid conditions allowed a fungal infection called black pod disease to flourish, rotting cocoa beans on the trees.

Ms Rumsey said her business was paying about three times as much for wholesale cocoa than it was two years ago.

Johnny Baxter, who runs Dorset Chocolate near Sturminster Newton, said price rises meant he was being forced to adapt by creating new recipes.

"[We're] using more fruit on the inside and then covering those in chocolate. so there's lots of exciting innovation going on at the same time," he said.

He added that he did not expect prices to go down anytime soon.

"[Chocolate] will become a premium product - and that really goes back to something that was seen 200 years ago when cocoa was a very exclusive taste."

Ms Rumsey said one chocolate variety "would have cost us £4,500 per tonne a few years ago. Now it's over £13,000 per tonne".

She said market activity was also pushing up prices, some of which would have to be passed onto customers.

"We're still independent, so when we're taking hits - be that to our profit margin or our way of doing business - that results in us not getting paid," Ms Rumsey said.

She said she she was unsure what the future held for her branch of the business, which was begun by her father-in-law Nigel Rumsey in 1991.

"I wonder what [Thame] High Street will look like in a year's time. Hopefully we'll still be here... but it's a tricky time," she added.

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