“Chocolate bars could get smaller or have cheaper ingredients added as manufacturers try to combat cocoa price increases that hit 300% earlier this year, an industry expert warned. Global prices of the commodity reached an all-time high on the New York Stock Exchange after El Niño winds damaged crops in Africa. An industry analyst said reducing product sizes (also known as shrinkflation), cutting cocoa content and adding cheaper ingredients such as nuts, fruit and fillings could be used by some firms to absorb some of the increased cost of cocoa….”
Our very own Mike Simons was interviewed recently as part of this article for the BBC here in Norfolk! He said as a small producer he was unable to shrink product sizes – due to the cost of buying new moulds and packaging – and instead was diversifying into selling coffee and ice-cream at his chocolate shop.
“I don’t think we could do it because it would impact the flavour and the quality of the products we make,” he said.
“So I wouldn’t do that any more than I would the shrinkflation thing that a lot of companies do, so we maintain the size and the quality.
“We should be able to ride it unless it does another doubling or trebling as it has done this year.”
Mike Simons also appeared on the local evening news bulletin on BBC Look East on Thursday 8th August
You can watch the episode here – the feature about high cocoa costs impacting Norfolk chocolatiers comes up at around 11 minutes & 20 seconds into the video clip.
You can read more from the article “Chocolate makers ‘may have to cut cocoa content'” on the BBC News website
You can also listen to a clip from BBC Norfolk which covers their news article featuring Norfolk chocolatiers – and hear from Mike himself!
