If you’re not a fan of nuts in your sweets, Valentine’s Day could cost you more this year. The chocolates inside many of this holiday’s heart-shaped boxes will likely contain more filler ingredients like nuts and fruits to offset the cost of pure chocolate.“We used to look at hazelnuts and pistachio as an expensive inclusion,” said Jacques Torres, a chocolatier with high-end shops in New York City. “Today, those nuts allow us to lower the cost of our chocolate bar.”The price of raw cocoa, chocolate’s key ingredient, has surged by 200% over the past year, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks online retail prices. On global commodities markets, cocoa futures are down slightly in recent weeks after peaking above $12,000 per ton — a record — just before Christmas. Two years ago, they were less than $2,500.We used to look at hazelnuts and pistachio as an expensive inclusion. Today, those nuts allow us to lower the cost of a chocolate bar.Chocolatier Jacques TorresTorres said he had to raise prices by 20% last month to offset the higher costs, and he anticipates another hike before the end of the year.The historic price run-up just ahead of the chocolate industry’s biggest day of the year has been months in the making. Disruptive weather patterns fueled by climate change have hammered West Africa, where most of the world’s cacao, the raw form of the bean that gets processed into cocoa, is grown. Similar challenges have been mounting for coffee farmers, too, fueling a sharp price spike on global markets that consumers are increasingly expected to feel this year.The cacao bean grows best in temperatures up to 89 degrees Fahrenheit and with annual rainfall less than 2,000 millimeters. In 2024, 71% of cacao-producing areas in West Africa experienced an average of 42 days with temperatures above that heat threshold, with some areas receiving 40% more rainfall than expected during the peak of the rainy season, according to a report released this week by Climate Central, a climate research institute.Chocolate sellers are increasingly adding filler ingredients like nuts to offset higher cocoa costs.Michael Wyke / Houston Chronicle via Getty Images fileThe increased temperatures and precipitation contribute to fungal diseases in cacao beans, the researchers said. Warm, humid conditions also breed mealybugs, which can spread an infection that spoils cacao crops. The combined impact of excessive heat and rainfall severely affected yield for cacao farmers. In the 2023-2024 harvest season, production was down 13.1% from the previous season, the Wells Fargo Agri-Food Institute told NBC News.Intensifying and more frequent extreme heat events and excessive precipitation are directly linked to global warming, as rising temperatures trap more moisture in the atmosphere. Climate scientists project excessive rainfall patterns to persist in West Africa through the rest of the century, while the entire continent warms 0.3 degrees Celsius faster
Gio. Feb 13th, 2025
