1 day Ago By jthurston
Chocolate lovers, don’t despair. Despite increased cocoa costs, several local chocolatiers plan to hold candy prices steady so customers can fill their Easter baskets with their traditional holiday favorites. Bill Sarris, president and CEO of Sarris Candies in Canonsburg, said his prices are set in July, and any cost increase is being absorbed at this time.
“As of right now, today, since July of 2022, (cocoa) beans are four times the cost. Beans were $2,000 a metric ton at the time; now it’s $8,000. It was as high as $12,000 at one time a few months ago,” he said during a recent interview.
Sarris purchases cocoa beans on the commodities market and those beans are shipped to their production partners to produce the chocolate they sell. “Global cocoa production is down about 30%,” said Sarris. “The majority of cocoa beans come from Africa.
Weather related, they had a dry spell, they had a wet spell, which both affect the growth of the cocoa tree.” Paradise Candy in Washington has been making chocolate for 105 years. Anna Berg, co-owner with her husband, David, said her suppliers also tell her the rising cost is due to cocoa issues over the past couple of years.
“All the ingredients are going up. The main one is the cocoa,” Anna Berg said. She said they try to keep their prices stable, which they did through the Christmas season with no increase until February, which was small.
Holding prices down “basically means lower profit,” she said. The business was started by her great uncle Peter Paradise and after he retired was purchased by her father, Jake Paradise. “We have generations of customers,” said Berg, of their Donnan Avenue store where they continue the tradition of hand-dipped chocolates.
When Debbie Sargent started Pink House Chocolates in Finleyville more than 13 years ago, the price of the solid block chocolate she buys was moderate. “Easter is our biggest season,” Sargent said. “Everyone does chocolate across the board.
” A letter from her supplier, Sargent said, explained that the most recent cocoa bean crop did not produce the hoped-for yield. To make her hand-crafted chocolate selections, Sargent buys her chocolate in blocks from a supplier and said she pays a little more to purchase a particular source of cocoa because she is conscious about sustainability. The Pink House also offers melting discs for those who traditionally make homemade candy.
Those have not been affected by price increases due to their ingredients, she said. “We are making a good quality chocolate at as low of a price as we can,” Sargent said. “All of the cost absorption we’ve done has always been in other areas.
It’s never been in quality.” For Sargent, that means she works extra hours without pay, to absorb employment costs when they have hired someone else, or deferred projects. She said she’s “not concerned that we will have to close our doors.
It seems to us that demand has stayed the same.” Sarris said this isn’t the first time chocolate makers have faced this type of challenge. “This happened at the beginning of 2000, there was a big increase.
Eventually, hopefully, it works itself out and the growers continue to plant, continue to work at their farming,” Sarris said. “Are the crops shrinking? Everybody says that they are, and long term and sooner or later, there may not be any chocolate. I don’t believe that,” Sarris said.
With costs in general on the rise, chocolate is considered by many to be a luxury. “You aren’t running out and buying chocolate and not buying eggs or bread or milk. You’re buying those things first and if you have anything left, then you are buying your chocolate,” Sarris said.
“It’s an affordable indulgence, and it makes people happy. You can buy a little bit of chocolate, and it can please the whole family,” he said..
