Blame it on the climate
Since the start of 2023, the price of cocoa has doubled on the London and New York markets to reach all-time highs.
In 1977, it was trading historically at US$5,379 per tonne. Last week it exceeded $5900. The climb seems to continue.
This increase in price is explained by poor harvests in Ivory Coast and Ghana, the main producing countries which now supply around 60% of the world’s cocoa.
Very bad news as Valentine’s Day approaches, you say?
Not necessarily.
First of all, we must make a distinction. There is this mass cocoa, which is traded on the stock market and which is bought by a few large industrialists who redistribute it everywhere. Companies that make chocolate, of all sizes, are customers of Cacao Barry or Valrhona, for example. Several other confectioners, often smaller chocolatiers, obtain their supplies via another network.
Delays
The price of the box of Lindor chocolate hearts that you are about to buy at the pharmacy will not be affected by this dizzying increase for a little while.
The same goes for products from Quebec companies that work with this chocolate to make hearts for Valentine’s Day or bunnies for Easter.
Chocolatier Mathilde Fays, from Oka, works with this type of chocolate for part of her production, particularly for moldings. His products are sold in 200 businesses in Quebec and his business, after a crazy expansion during the pandemic, is in the stabilization phase.
“It is certain that the rise has impacted us in recent years,” she says, but fortunately, the rises observed on the stock market are not immediately reflected in the price of the chocolate that she buys as a raw material.
This gives it time to adjust: because the rise in chocolate prices coupled with the current economic context has imposed accounting gymnastics on it over the past year. It had to increase production efficiency and reduce the weight of certain products, so that they remained accessible to its customers.
Direct purchases
Other chocolatiers work directly with cocoa producers.
“It is certain that our business model is completely different from that of the chocolate multinationals,” indicates from the outset Maud Gaudreau, founder of Etat de choc, which manufactures and sells chocolate whose trace can be traced. planting right up to the bar – what we call in chocolatier jargon the bean to bar.
This entrepreneur, a follower of the “bean to bar” principles, explains that the price of cocoa from small plantations has also risen, but without comparison to the increases in cocoa listed on the stock exchange.
Same speech at Qantu, a small Montreal cocoa processor.
“We have worked directly with cooperatives since the beginning, seven years ago. We pay a price much higher than that of the stock market, explains Maxime Simard, co-founder of Qantu. The producers tell us, it makes a difference for them. »
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER THE PRESS
“We negotiate this price directly with them,” adds Maxime Simard, who specifies that he then pays for transport – which is not the case when you buy from an intermediary.
For specialty cocoa, Quebec chocolatiers easily pay double, if not triple, the prices displayed on the stock market.
A difficult context
Mathilde Fays is not the only one making calculations to manage this rise in the price of cocoa, at a time when her customers are paying more for their basic groceries.
The chocolatier Yves Bonneau has resigned himself to slightly raising the prices of his candies, because in confectionery, the cost of most raw materials is increasing, including that of sugar.
“For three or four years, it has increased a lot, every year,” he said. It’s difficult for us because we have to cut back on our margins to the extent that we don’t want to and we can’t increase as much as cocoa will increase. Our customers would no longer follow us. »
The Montreal chocolatier works both with specialty cocoa that he buys directly from Peru, since he makes his own chocolate, and with an already processed product, sold by a large distributor.
“The customer understands,” he said. He knows we are in the middle of inflation. He knows there have been a lot of increases on a lot of things. We see it everywhere. People are quite compassionate. »
Valentine’s Day promises to be very good for Chocolaterie Bonneau: it is the most important sales period, after Christmas and Easter.
According to Maxime Simard, from Qantu, people will reduce more significant expenses and this will allow them to buy a vintage tablet for $12, for pleasure. “Chocolate remains an affordable luxury,” he says.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Qantu produces more than 100,000 bars annually, in addition to making chocolate for pastry chefs, for around ten tonnes of cocoa processed in its factory.
A system to rethink
The most optimistic believe that the current surge in cocoa prices could benefit the farmer-producers at the beginning of the chain.
“There is currently a shock in the industry. Chocolate is sold at ridiculous prices and it can’t continue like this, because that means producers are giving it away. We are still in the colonial heritage,” says Dany Marquis, general manager of Chaleur B Chocolat and Bassan Chocolat, which imports and processes cocoa beans in Gaspésie.
“We cover the entire chain,” he explains, “from importation to final processing. »
Bassan distributes chocolate for chefs and chocolatiers who, despite the rising price of ingredients, still prefer to use this high quality chocolate. Mathilde Fays is a customer.
The company imports directly from producers in the Dominican Republic, Belize and Tanzania, among others. Many of them have also had to deal with climate change in recent months, which has affected yields, indicates Dany Marquis. And the prices.
“The increase is a good thing, because it forces multinationals to stock up on slightly more expensive chocolate. »
Maxime Simard, from Qantu, notes that the stock market price has been around $2/kg on average for almost 50 years. “It would be normal,” he said, “to have an increase, because the price is lagging terribly behind the value it should have in reality. »