High price of cocoa bittersweet news for Canadian bakeries

Small business owners in Canada, bakeries in particular, are feeling the pinch due to a global shortage of cocoa. The lack of supply means the cost of it has skyrocketed over the past few months and continues to remain high.

Ashley Benson, co-owner of Bloom Cookie Co. in Edmonton says cocoa powder is used in more than half of the baked goods at the shop, and the cost is adding up.

“The cocoa, when I ordered it last year, was $182 for 50 pounds, and now it’s $400 for 50 pounds,” she said.

Benson says to make up for the cost, she’s had to increase the price by $1 on one product.

“We still want it to be as accessible as possible for everybody. We don’t make those decisions lightly,” said Benson.

“We explain that to our customers. And everyone’s been wonderful about it, very understanding, which we really appreciate.”

The majority of the world’s chocolate production relies on beans exported from Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Sylvain Charlebois, director of The Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, says bad weather and disease has resulted in the shortage of cocoa yields.

“There’s just too much moisture. And fungus has actually impacted crops in that region of the world,” he said.

“Access to market has also been an issue because roads have been damaged.”

Charlebois says current data shows that the cost per metric ton of cocoa is US$9,395. The former historic high was set in 1977 when the cost was US$4,764 per metric ton.

Janet Wong Ken, owner and operator of Cookie Mama in Calgary says it’s very challenging to operate her bakery on slim margins.

“We can’t get rid of the cocoa. We can’t negotiate the price. It comes on the invoice as whatever it is that they’re going to charge us. So we just need to work within those parameters.”

Charlebois says it’s difficult to predict when the price of cocoa will decrease and that it depends on how the markets react.

“Many years ago, vanilla was widely used until it became extremely expensive. Nowadays we see a lot of products with vanilla, but most manufacturers are using artificial flavours, not the actual thing, which actually has reduced demand for vanilla.”

He adds that in the future, other methods to produce cocoa might be explored.

“Perhaps, over time, we could see different countries or companies decide to produce cocoa in a lab, which is possible. You can actually produce cocoa in a lab anywhere in the world without being at the mercy of major exporters like Ghana and the Ivory Coast. Perhaps some countries will decide to produce cocoa just because right now the prices are so high on the market.”