Sweet tooth: Where in Europe are chocoholics paying the most for their fix?

Driven by a poor harvest in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, the world's largest producers of cocoa, the price of chocolate has surged globally over the past year.

But where in the European Union have consumers seen the biggest price hike?

Poland took the podium at number one, with the country reporting a 39.1% increase as of May of this year, compared to the previous year.

Across Europe, prices were on average 21.1% higher in May than a year earlier, according to data from Eurostat.

Other countries reporting notable price hikes include Estonia (+37.9%), Lithuania (+36.5%), Latvia (+33.2%), Sweden (+28.0%) and Finland (+26.0%).

Price increases were less severe, however, in Luxembourg (+5.2%), Cyprus (+9.0%), Italy (+12.0%), Malta (+12.2%) and Austria (+13.4%).

Cocoa, which used to trade for between €2,000 and €3,000 a tonne, hit as high as around €13,000 a tonne for a period.

Analysts expect its price to remain at around €9,000 by the end of the year.

During the 2023/2024 season, the global cocoa market suffered a decline in production. The International Cocoa Organisation estimated that production declined by around 10% compared to the previous season.

Experts blamed this cocoa shortage on a variety of issues, such as bad weather — including intense rainfall followed by longer-than-usual dry seasons — climate change, and disease pressures in crops in West Africa.

Market analysts have estimated that the cocoa supply deficit — the difference between consumer demands and what the market can provide — rose to 478,000 metric tonnes during the 2023/2024 season, the highest deficit in 60 years.

Rising cocoa prices have translated into unprecedented chocolate price inflation, which in turn has put pressure on chocolate makers both in the European Union and worldwide to turn a profit.