Chocolate prices set to rise

Associated Press

NEW YORK

That bowl of chocolates for ninjas and ghosts won’t cost you more this Halloween. Picking the perfect sweet for your Valentine could.

The cost of ingredients in chocolate bars is rising, and the nation’s biggest candy makers already have warned of price hikes next year. And it’s not just costs that are pushing up prices. A growing sweet tooth around the world means more demand for chocolate.

Here are some global trends putting pressure on the confection:

PRICIER INGREDIENTS

Hershey and Mars, which together account for about two-thirds of U.S. chocolate sales, are raising prices. Hershey cited the rising cost of cocoa, dairy and nuts when it announced an 8 percent increase in the average wholesale price of its candy this summer.

Mars said this summer that its prices would rise by about 7 percent because of a need to support its marketing spending and “manufacturing capabilities.” The company said that it last increased prices in 2011.

GLOBAL SWEET TOOTH

People in the developing economies of Asia and Latin America are acquiring a taste for chocolate. While North America and Western Europe still account for more than half of global chocolate sales, demand is growing faster in emerging markets. That’s raising concerns that demand for cocoa beans, the key ingredient in chocolate bars, will outstrip supply.

SUPPLY PROBLEMS

West Africa is the world’s biggest cocoa-producing region and accounts for about two-thirds of the global crop. Unlike large, modern farms in the U.S. and other developed economies, about 80 to 90 percent of the world’s cocoa crop comes from small, family-run operations, according to the World Cocoa Foundation, a trade organization.

The small-scale production makes it more challenging to introduce modern farming techniques that boost productivity from season-to-season to faster match demand.