The big ears on your chocolate Easter bunny will come with a big price tag this year.
by Lee Stoll, KOMO News ReporterNOVATO, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 22: Chocolate Easter candy is displayed on a shelf at a Target store on March 22, 2024 in Novato, California. Cocoa futures prices have more than doubled since the beginning of the year and hit a record high of $8,940 per ton today. The spike in price is due to a shortage of cocoa and will likely result in higher prices for chocolate products ahead of the Easter holiday.
"We spend most of our life worrying about the price of cocoa and the rest of it worrying about the temperature of the chocolate," said Andrew Nason, CEO of Melt Chocolates.The price for cocoa beans has doubled since January. It's more than tripled in the last 12 months, draining wallets for other big celebrations like Valentine's Day.
Severe weather and plant disease have hit fields hard. In Ghana, the cocoa marketing board says many farmers are giving up ground to gold miners. "If you have all these farms being lost, productivity being lost as a result of illegal mining, then its impact on the industry is one we are really struggling to deal with," said Boufour.
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