The selection before me is just a smattering of the non-cocoa containing alternatives to chocolate that are creeping into the European retail market right now. Their makers have spied an opportunity, partly because real chocolate prices are soaring.
The average increase in price for chocolate was 9% over 2024, shot up by 14% in January just gone. That’s the retail price of chocolate. The wholesale price of the key ingredient, cocoa – which is made from fermented, roasted and ground cacao beans – has increased by an astonishing 300% in 2024.
A key reason for this increase is climate change-related weather impacts on cacao farms, particularly in West Africa. Plus, some farmers in Ghana are turning away from cacao production in favour of illegal gold-mining, according to reports.
Real chocolate could become a “luxury” item in the future says Massimo Sabatini, co-founder and chief executive of Italian firm Foreverland, which makes a cocoa powder alternative called Choruba.
A German food manufacturer Planet A Foods has developed a different chocolate alternative. Unlike Foreverland, Planet A Foods have chosen sunflower seeds as the key ingredient in their cocoa powder alternative, ChoViva.
Anything new that comes out has got to meet equal taste expectations, says Richard Caines, principal analyst in UK food and drink research at market research firm Mintel. Getting them to embrace alternatives devoid of cocoa will be no mean feat.
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