![]() ![]() So when a drought hits that area, as it did last year, it can send prices spiking. The continent accounts for nearly 72 percent of all world production, according to Mintel's data, most of it in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. Compare that to the 60-plus-percent cacao content of many dark chocolate bars.ĭrought: Africa is where most of the world's cocoa is grown. Hershey milk chocolate bars, for example, have, at most, 30 percent cacao, according to the New York Times, but FDA standards allow for percentages as low as 10 percent. According to Mintel's data, dark chocolate sales in the US grew by 9 percent in 2013, 50 percent faster than milk chocolate's growth of just 6 percent.īecause dark chocolate uses so much more cocoa than milk, it sucks up that much more of the world's cocoa crop. But dark chocolate is gaining ground fast. As of 2013, dark chocolate only accounted for around 20 percent of US chocolate sales, according to the Wall Street Journal. But consumption grew nowhere as much as in South Korea, where it was up a whopping 44 percent.ĭark chocolate is super popular: It's true that milk chocolate still dominates the chocolate market in the US. Per capita chocolate consumption in China grew by 30 percent from 2010 to 2013, according to data from market research firm Mintel, and it grew by 34 and 38 percent respectively in India and Indonesia over that period. But Indonesia and India are also big growth markets for chocolate. China is a prime example of this for a variety of foods - dairy and meat, for example, in addition to chocolate. Huge demand in Asia: Rapidly growing economies mean huge populations of consumers ready to spend their growing incomes on new tastes. Valentine's Day is a great hook for chocolate-themed news content, but there's another reason you've heard about this so often - a mix of problems, many of them long-term, have conspired to drive chocolate prices higher for years on end now.īut what's actually making your chocolate more expensive? And how is it changing the box of chocolates you're giving your beloved this year? Here's the rundown. Then we learned it again on Valentine's Day 2013. On Valentine's Day 2012, we learned that the world was in a chocolate crisis. ![]()
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