HERSHEY has confirmed that customers will be forced to swallow a double-digit price increase to its iconic chocolate bar.
Chiefs have blamed the rising costs of Cocoa having risen a whopping 178% in 2024.
Hershey has confirmed that customers will be forced to swallow a double-digit price increase to its iconic chocolate bar[/caption]
Hersey will soon be passing on a “low double-digit increase” to customers that will span across its entire product portfolio.
Hershey, founded in 1984, owns over 90 brands including Hershey Kisses, KitKat, Reese’s and York.
A spokesperson for Hershey said: “This change is not related to tariffs or trade policies.
“It reflects the reality of rising ingredient costs including the unprecedented cost of cocoa.”
It is not known exactly how long customers have left until the price increases, or how much the chocolate will go up by.
Price increases generally take around 90 days to take effect, however.
This increase comes as CEO Michele Buck said in May that the company was doing all it could to absorb higher input costs.
This would be done by adjusting the pack size and pricing together, which she said would lead to increased prices in the second and third quarter of the year
Buck added that the company would lean into “less Cocoa intensive” products going forward.
She explained: “We love our chocolate business and we want to continue to grow that.
“But we also know that if we get into white spaces like sweets, better-for-you and salty, it adds incremental consumers and occasions.”
RAPIDLY RISING COSTS
Cocoa prices have seen massive global price increases in recent years.
Data from FactSet claims that the commodity rose 178% in 2024, following a 61% rise from 2023.
The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, which tracks food prices, says that Cocoa prices have gone up 73% from five years ago.
It reflects the reality of rising ingredient costs including the unprecedented cost of cocoa
Spokesperson for Hershey
The majority of the world’s Cocoa supply comes Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
However, poor weather conditions and heavy rain linked to climate change has made crop yields worse.
Poor conditions has also seen diseases like Black pod rot spread, which kills crops.
J.P. Morgan also wrote recently that a chronic under investment in Cocoa farms is another reason for the issue.
Tracey Allen, an agricultural commodities strategist at J.P. Morgan, said: “Cocoa is a market where the grower produces a very high-value good but receives a very low share of the actual value chain.
“As a result, replanting rates of diseased trees are low and West African yields have been more subject to weather impacts.”
Hersey will soon be passing on a “low double-digit increase” to customers that will span across its entire product portfolio[/caption]
