There are concerns that the price of a chocolate bar may increase as cocoa prices have reached a record high. This widely used commodity's price has increased by more than 40% in the past month alone, from £3,443 on January 9 to £4,909 per metric tonne on Friday. The price on London's ICE market surged by over 5% on Friday alone. Prices for cocoa were around £1,904 a year ago. Cadbury's issued a warning last month that it would need to implement "carefully considered price increases". They stated: "Making changes to the price of our products is always a last resort, however, costs across our supply chain have risen steeply."
The company stated: "Core ingredients we heavily rely on, like cocoa and sugar are a lot more expensive, while the cost of energy, packaging, and transport also remain high." They went on to say: "As a result, we are having to make some carefully considered price increases across our range so we can continue to provide consumers with the brands they love without compromising on taste or quality." In other developments, Nestle declared earlier this week that declining sales had forced it to stop producing Yorkie and Breakaway biscuit bars. US manufacturer Hershey's announced on Thursday that it would need to make cost reductions of $300 million (£238 million) and issued a warning that it would not meet market expectations.
The CEO of the Hershey Company, Michele Buck, has issued a warning, stating that rising cocoa costs may force chocolate prices to increase. According to a Which? analysis from the previous year, the price of holiday chocolate boxes had increased by at least 50%. By the end of the previous year, chocolate was increasing in price in supermarkets almost twice as quickly as other food and beverages. In September of last year, a startling discovery surfaced: Galaxy had lowered the weight of their Smooth Milk bar from 110g to 100g, yet the cost had increased at Tesco from 99p to £1.25. On Tesco's website, a 110g Galaxy bar cost £1.35 as of Friday.