LOGAN, Utah — The price of Easter chocolate skyrocketed last year, but it has since come down. Utah chocolate makers are trying to weather the price spike felt around the world. Unfortunately, there are a half-dozen reasons why chocolate prices aren’t going down anytime soon.
The result of those efforts is USU’s Aggie Chocolate Factory. Production manager Andrea LeDuc has been working there for a few years. Long enough that even the raw cacao beans smell delicious.
“I order the beans,” she said, “I produce the chocolate, I do everything, almost immediately.”
It’s the ordering of the beans that is on the minds of chocolatiers right now. Many factors influence the type of chocolate you can get.
“We have to have good relations with the country, we have to make sure they’re safe and they’re not taking people with them who are following them,” LeDuc said. “They have to meet FDA standards.”
“Some countries refuse to buy beans from farms located on deforested land.”
And DeLuc says farms with just ten trees can’t afford to get “no-deforest” certification.
Weather, Disease, Collusion and Chocolate Prices
There are other factors that come into play when it comes to the price of chocolate. Art Pollard tells you more.
“The climate has changed, and there have been a series of droughts. New diseases have appeared.”
Pollard is the owner and CEO of Amano Artisan Chocolate in Orem.
“We are the most awarded chocolate company in the United States, with more than 200 first-place finishes,” he said.
He buys beans from all over the world, but he says prices for raw materials are set by Ghana and Ivory Coast, making things expensive.
“They decided to collude to keep prices high, the way OPEC does for oil.”
Artisan chocolatiers are paying four times the base price, which was $2,800 a tonne, rose to $13,000 and is now down to $8,000. Pollard says speculators may have also driven up prices.
The Calm Before the Storm at Aggie Chocolate
The beans roasted at Aggie Chocolate were purchased before prices spiked.
“When I have to buy my next batch of beans, we will have to readjust our prices,” DeLuc said.
Pollard has already raised Amano prices from $10 to $13 a bar.
“It made me sad,” he said, “because I’ve always tried to keep our prices low. Just to make our chocolate more accessible.”
Both say prices have stabilized for now, but the factors that drove them up in the first place have not.
“I could see the price going up to $13,000 a ton again,” Pollard said.
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