There is a crisis in the chocolate and cocoa industry which began in early January 2024.
The annual cocoa bean crop came in the end of 2023 with a 25% deficit vs last year. As soon as the word got out – the market – which had been slowly climbing all of 2023, took off. To make matters worse, speculators have entered the market.
Sparrow currently purchases chocolate and cocoa products from 15 different manufacturers and all their chocolate products are expensive now. We don’t expect this to get much better for at least the next 6 months and we could be at these inflated prices for another year.
WHAT CAN WE DO?
We have a few ideas to offer to try to offset the increased pricing.
Here are a few ideas:
- Switch to confectionery compounds – which have no cocoa butter in them, so they are less expensive options.
- Use fewer chocolate chips in recipes
- Use chocolate flavoring
- Use chocolate decorations – this is a way to have chocolate in a dessert [but not a
large quantity. This lowers the per serving costs. - Chocolate coating pennies – chefs can dip strawberries or cookies etc and have a chocolate presence on their menus. This product also has no cocoa butter, so is less expensive.
Please contact your salesperson or our customer service if you need additional info, samples and pricing on any of these alternatives.