Cocoa prices are volatile – here’s how to stay ahead

Cocoa prices are unpredictable – but your product margins don’t have to be. Discover how our cost-effective coatings deliver indulgence without compromise. Reformulate smartly, save significantly, and keep your consumers delighted. Anne Hoenig, Product Line Manager Chocolate explains how to get there.

Consumers love chocolate. But 76% of them also cite the cost-of-living crisis as a major concern, influencing how they select food products.* In the current cocoa dynamics, it’s essential to offer them indulgence at an acceptable price without compromise on the sensorial experience.  

In today’s cocoa landscape, it’s more important than ever to deliver indulgence at an accessible price – without compromising on the rich, sensorial experience chocolate lovers expect. That’s why we’ve responded with our “cost-effective delights” range of alternatives to chocolate. This large portfolio of solutions that enables our customers to achieve interesting savings, while still maintaining a very delightful consumer experience. Depending on the cocoa market at a specific time, cost savings of more than 50% are achievable using these solutions.** All this while maintaining good sensory quality – and for a range of the compound solutions even maintaining the “chocolate” labeling.  

“Since 2023, the prices of cocoa & chocolate have significantly increased,” says Anne Hoenig, Product Line Manager Chocolate. “Even though there’s been a bit of a drop in recent months, the supply situation remains critical, driving volatility,” she adds.  

Anne notes that 2023 was an eyeopener for our customers. “The turbulence highlighted that even though the price in the short term has gone down, long-term backup solutions are required that are more robust and future proof,” she stresses. Since cocoa butter is the most expensive ingredient in chocolate formulations, if customers can make price gains here, it will have a major impact.  

The “cost-effective delights” range leverages a cocoa butter equivalent, or CBE that enables us to partially or fully replace cocoa butter. These CBEs deliver similar texture and snap as we see in a product that is entirely based on cocoa butter. It is this combination between cost savings and other product specifications that make them very interesting indeed.  

Anne accepts that compounds in themselves are generally not new. After all, we have known for quite a while that with compounds you can achieve very nice sensory results, and have cost savings. However, these cost savings have increased tremendously in recent years due to the cocoa supply shortages.