BDSI raises fears over rapid cocoa price rises impacting confectionery markets
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The German confectionery trade body, BDSI, has expressed fears over the rapidly accelerating price of cocoa, which is impacting on stock availability for chocolate manufacturers in the country and across Europe, writes Neill Barston.
As Confectionery Production reported earlier this week, stock market prices in New York reached fresh highs of $6,500 a tonne, owing to a combination of factors including poor harvests, crop disease, and supply deficits in major producer nations of Ghana and Ivory Coast, which account for two thirds of the industry.
In addition, there have also been localised reports of cocoa smuggling impacting the market, as traders attempt to seek a higher price for limited cocoa resources in neighbouring West African nations, which has caused considerable concern by regional authorities.
For its part, the BDSI has also highlighted other recent major challenges for the sector including a significant upturn in energy and wider ingredients costs, including a similarly concerning upturn in sugar prices. It noted that the major ramping-up of costs for cocoa (which has effectively doubled in the past year), represented a significant barrier to the market, which is under pressure from other factors including greater demand in Asia, and mounting legislation such as the EUDR due diligence laws due this year.
In a statement, the organisation noted that it was “very concerned” by the situation, both in terms of the availability and the price of the most important raw material for chocolate. Cocoa is more expensive than ever and the price has continued to climb for weeks.
Dr. Carsten Bernoth, General Manager of the BDSI, which represents more than 200 medium-sized confectionery companies, commented: “If there is a decline in supply, the supplying countries have the choice of which regions of the world they would like to deliver their cocoa to. In the future, deliveries to the EU will be significantly more bureaucratic due to the requirements of the EU Deforestation Regulation or the EU Supply Chain Act (CSDDD). Effort required than, for example, deliveries to the USA or the booming countries of Asia. Companies in Europe are therefore at a significant disadvantage compared to competitors in other regions of the world. This is all the more annoying as the European confectionery industry is already well on its way to greater sustainability in the cocoa sector.”
The BDSI therefore expects both the federal government and the European legislator to urge the governments of the most important producer countries to ensure that the high cocoa price also reaches the farmers in order to be available for the expansion of sustainable cocoa cultivation.
