If you are a fan of chocolate, you may have noticed that the price of your favorite treat has gone up in recent years.
While inflation has pushed the price of goods around the world upward, the culprit in this case is likely drought and heat on the other side of the world.
The amount that Eugene’s Euphoria Chocolate pays for cocoa has roughly tripled in the past five years, according to General Manager Robert Ehrmentrout.
“We’re in a time where something like this has never happened,” said Ehrmentrout.
That increase is in line with the market for cocoa. In September 2021, cocoa futures sold for around $2,100. The price this month is around $7,000. And that price is not the peak. In December 2024, cocoa hit more than $12,000.
Ehrmentrout said drought and heat in the West African countries of Ghana and Ivory Coast, which produce most of the world’s cocoa, have caused prices to skyrocket.
Along with nourishment for the crop, rains also help tamp down a beetle and a fungus that ravage cocoa pods.
The shortage has caused Euphoria Chocolate to think about what it charges.
“What can we comfortably move the price to? Because we don’t want to lose that trust with our customer base or anything like that, but we also do need to stay in business,” he said.
The good news, according to Ehrmentrout, is that rain is returning to the West Africa region where most chocolate comes from.
There could also be an increase in production. When drought began hitting the region, other chocolate producing countries that were not experiencing drought, such as Nigeria, began planting trees. And those new trees should soon enter their productive years.
However, he said, it is hard to know if cocoa prices will stay elevated due to another upward force: tariffs.
Many of the leading cocoa producers are set to face new duty rates of 15%.
