Will there be chocolate at Christmas? Over the past year, cocoa has seen its price increase sixfold on a global scale. As the end-of-year holidays approach, professionals are closely monitoring the price of this raw material.
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Already at Easter, the question arose, will there be chocolate at an affordable price? The window price had increased by 10% on average for eggs and other chocolate bunnies. This Christmas, chocolate papillotes and logs are not immune to a new inflation in the cost of the main ingredient: cocoa.
Between 2020 and 2024, the price per tonne of cocoa increased from €2,500 to €11,967. The price has now fallen to €7,739, which is still too high for food retail professionals. At the global level, a fewer number of producers would explain this price explosion.
This directly impacts Johan Robin, pastry chef from Sathonay-Village in the Rhône, who has also been a chocolatier for five years. “Less than two years ago, I sold the tablet for between €4 and €5. Today, my accountant advises me to sell the tablets for €9explains the chocolate pastry chef. And yet I have neither employed nor ready, but it gets complicated. We can’t see the future, it’s day by day.”.
Good news, for Christmas, the stock of chocolate is already stocked. “I might even be able to last until Easter without having to buy more at crazy prices”breathes Johan Robin. But the professional is worried about the holidays, he fears that customers will turn to cheaper chocolates in supermarkets. “Instead of filling the mattresses with tickets, we will soon fill them with chocolate”jokes the chocolate pastry chef in his reserve.
In the world of pastry too, chocolate holds a special place. However, during the Sustainable Pastry Competition in Marcy-l’Etoile, this Monday, October 14, many candidates did without the cocoa bean. “Many of them have chosen fruits and vegetables”details pastry chef Bastien Girard, jury of the competition.
However, he assures, the cost of the product is not the main reason for this disinterest. “In a competition, we don’t use kilos and kilos of chocolate, a candidate who wants to work on it can do so, without it costing them too much”explains the chef.
A consumer product, chocolate is everywhere today. Here, the pastry chefs have decided: it will be quality, to the detriment of quantity. ‘ When there is a surge in raw materials, it is not a question of changing the recipes, but of making fewer references, while keeping the same spirit in the creations, explains Pierre Hermé, pastry chef and chocolatier known for his macarons. Instead of four products, I’m going to make two.”
“We can no longer create recipes in the same waysays Frédéric Bau, pastry chef at Maison Valrhôna. I must notnever make any sacrifice on the quality of the product, but there are things to be done on the staging.”
If the price increase is confirmed for 2025, the professionals have taken the lead. This winter, there will be plenty of chocolate on the holiday table, but quality chocolate risks becoming a luxury product.
