COCOA Hundreds of millions of chocolate eggs and bunnies will be consumed around the world for the Easterbut the global shortage of cocoa has tripled prices in the last year, bringing the products on the counter at a significantly higher cost. Even in Italy, the record prices of cocoa on international markets risk having direct effects on the retail prices of numerous products, leading to a wave of unprecedented price increases for confectionery goods.
This is stated by Codacons, commenting on cocoa prices that have risen to 10,030 dollars per ton. “An example of the effects of expensive cocoa can already be found immediately in Italian shops,” explains the association. «The growth in prices recorded in the last year has in fact determined general increases in prices for Easter eggs, with the best-known brands increasing their public price lists by between 16% and 24% compared to last year, with peaks in some commercial chains by 40 percent. The new record reached today by cocoa, if prices do not return to normal, risks having negative consequences on the retail prices of a multitude of consumer products: from chocolate bars to chocolates, from cocoa drinks to snacks or biscuits filled with chocolate, passing through spreadable creams. But ice cream, cakes, pastries and other fresh products that use the raw material cocoa will also be affected by the current crisis and will suffer a price increase. To understand the effects on consumers’ pockets, just think that three out of four Italians habitually consume chocolate-based products, with a per capita consumption of around 2 kg and a turnover that in our country exceeds two billion euros per year, he concludes The Codacons.
