Dutch chocolate prices to stay high despite 50% drop in cocoa costs

Chocolate lovers will not see immediate relief at the checkout despite a sharp drop in global cocoa prices this year. After a historic surge in 2024, cocoa prices fell by about 50 percent in 2025, marking the steepest annual decline since 1960, when these figures were first recorded, AD reported.

The fall in prices follows last year’s record high of nearly 13,000 dollars per ton, driven by diseases and extreme weather that reduced harvests in Ivory Coast and Ghana, which supply more than half of the world’s cocoa. Prices dropped this year as harvest forecasts improved and global demand eased.

Producers and market experts expect that the lower cocoa prices may not be reflected in supermarket chocolate until the second half of next year, and even that is uncertain. Many manufacturers have already raised chocolate prices following last year’s near tripling of cocoa futures and have stocked their supply at these elevated costs.

However, chocolate manufacturers largely rely on futures contracts, agreements to buy cocoa at fixed prices in the future. “The prices of the cocoa the chocolate industry is currently working with are painfully high,” said a market analyst at London trading firm Marex Group. “It will take some time before we get through that inventory.”

To manage price volatility, global chocolate companies have adjusted recipes, reduced cocoa content, and created smaller chocolate bars and bonbons.