Chocolate prices up by almost half in three years
Chocolate prices are up by almost half in just three years, latest inflation figures show, as extreme weather affects major cocoa producers.
Chocolate prices have gone up 43% since 2022, according to analysis of latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures by green think tank the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).
The figures show chocolate price inflation is increasing, rising from 9.8% last Easter compared to Easter 2023 to 13.6% this year on Easter 2024.
In March, Which? found that Easter eggs have gone up in price by as much as 50% on last year while shrinking in size.
Inflation tracking by the consumer group found the price of chocolate has risen by 16.5% in a year, compared to a 4.4% increase for supermarket food and drink overall.
ONS data shows that cumulative inflation from March 2022, when prices were relatively stable before West Africa was hit by extreme weather, to March this year, comes out at 43%.
The ECIU warned that this was largely driven by extreme weather caused by climate change affecting cocoa producers Ivory Coast and Ghana.
ECIU analyst Amber Sawyer said: 'Chocolate is just one of the many foods being made more expensive by climate change-driven extreme weather hitting crops, and until we reach net zero emissions, these extremes will keep getting worse.
'The farmers who grow the cocoa beans that become our Easter eggs have been really struggling, hit by wave after wave of extreme weather, while here at home farmers in England saw their second worst harvest on record last year because of storms that were made 20% heavier and 10 times more likely by climate change.
'With our food security under threat, be it cocoa, rice, bananas or British vegetables rotting in flooded fields, farmers will need increasing support to keep on growing the food we need, in the UK but also through climate finance for farmers overseas.'
Recent ECIU analysis found that imports of cocoa beans to the UK have fallen by 10% since 2022, while the average price per kilo has gone up by a third (32%), meaning the UK is paying more for less cocoa.
Ivory Coast and Ghana supply more than half of cocoa globally.
Ivory Coast was the UK's top supplier in 2024, providing 84% of our cocoa beans worth £135 million.
2023 saw extreme rainfall in West Africa, with total precipitation more than double the 30-year average for the time of year in some places, while 2024 saw extreme heat and drought.
Scientists at the World Weather Attribution found that the humid heatwave last Easter was made 4C hotter and 10 times more likely because of climate change, the ECIU said.
West African cocoa farmers had gone from having too much rain to not enough, affecting the planting, growing and harvesting of cocoa crops, feeding through to prices.
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