Сocoa prices hit record low

Prices for cocoa beans, a key raw material for chocolate, have fallen to record lows in recent weeks. Currently, the price of a ton of cocoa beans on global exchanges is around $3,250 per ton, down from $9,900 per ton a year earlier.

Compared to the peak price reached in December 2024, when prices soared to $12,000 per ton, cocoa beans have now fallen 3.6 times.

Experts attribute the price drop to several factors. First, favorable weather conditions in West Africa, one of the main suppliers of cocoa beans to the global market. Furthermore, the good harvest has caught many analysts by surprise, who had predicted a cocoa deficit in 2025–2026 but are now forced to sharply revise their forecasts, which is also leading to a sharp decline in prices, primarily futures contracts. Moreover, when prices were at their peak, many producers began to adapt to the shortage and reduce the cocoa content in some of their products, which led to an overall decline in global cocoa demand.

Meanwhile, in many countries, the drop in cocoa bean prices has not yet translated into a comparable decline in chocolate prices. In the US, many consumers and retailers are complaining about high prices from producers. Experts believe this is due to long-term supply contracts that were signed at even higher prices, as well as the fact that some producers reduced the amount of chocolate in their products to maintain prices and are now hesitant to make further changes to their recipes because doing so would impose additional costs.

Tags: prices, cocoa