| | | Happy Holidays | | From ConfectioneryNews! |
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| | | Happy Holidays from ConfectioneryNews!
As we prepare to close the office for the Christmas period (we’ll be back online 2 January 2024), I would like to wish you all a fabulous holiday season from myself and the team at ConfectioneryNews.
Despite global inflation and the cost of raw materials, chocolate still remains an affordable, indulgent treat for many consumers. It is a lucrative industry with revenue estimated at $238.50 billion in 2023 and expected to grow annually by 5.81% (CAGR 2023-2028).
However, as we end the year with the price of cocoa beans on the market at its highest since 1978, mainly due to poor crop harvests in West Africa because of climate change, the price of a chocolate bar will increase as the companies pass on manufacturing costs to the consumer.
Despite the rhetoric from the big multinational chocolate companies and leading cocoa suppliers about creating a more sustainable supply chain, the dial has hardly moved on providing cocoa farmers with a decent living income, and with skyrocketing cocoa prices in New York and London, price hikes by major companies in the industry are just one consequence. The long-term effects could also have an impact not only on the farmers but also on producing countries and consumers.
Sustainability in the cocoa sector is a topic we cover in-depth because there is no chocolate without trees and farmers. Rest assured that in 2024, we will continue to hold the main actors to account - mainly if they don’t stick to the promise of transparency in their supply chains.
Apart from the ongoing sustainability issues, one topic that has dominated the past 12 months is the European Union’s Deforestation Regulations, passed into law by Brussels in June 2023 but effective from December 2024, giving stakeholders a transition period after which cocoa that cannot be proved that it has not been farmed in a protected area will banned from the EU market. ConfectioneryNews is planning a special webinar on this topic in January, so look out for details.
On a brighter note, 2023 provided many positive highlights, with successful trade shows at ISM in Cologne and Snacks in Chicago, and Salon du Chocolat in Paris , where the trend for plant-based and healthy alternatives dominated the skyline, and we look forward to more innovations in the sector in the coming months.
ConfectioneryNews also witnessed the great work in making chocolate an equal industry with projects such as Chocolate Cordillera’s ATENA project in Colombia, empowering women cocoa farmers, Barry Callebaut’s support of cocoa-growing communities in Cote d’Ivoire and Pronatec’s projects in the Dominican Republic where it works with small-holder farmers and pays a premium for their organic cocoa beans.
What does 2024 have in store? We’ll keep you updated with the latest developments and trends; make sure you subscribe to our newsletter - in the meantime, happy holidays!
Anthony Myers
Editor |
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