Chocolate prices jumped nearly 18% across the European Union in 2025, marking the steepest increase of any food product, following a historic spike in cocoa costs driven by West African drought and plant disease.
West Africa, notably Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire, are the world’s main cocoa‑growing region, which pushed supplies to their lowest levels in decades.
Overall consumer prices in the EU rose 2.5% last year, while food and non‑alcoholic beverages increased 3.3%, Eurostat data shows. But chocolate far outpaced other food categories, including beef and veal, which climbed 10%, Euronews reported.
Chocolate inflation ranged from 6.6% in Slovakia to 32.6% in Poland. Including non‑EU states, the spread widened further from Albania with 1.6% rise, to Turkey which saw a 44% jump as of early 2026.
Several countries in Central and Eastern Europe posted increases above 25%, including Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Latvia and Serbia. Inflation also exceeded the EU average in Sweden, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Greece, North Macedonia, Spain, Finland, Czechia, the Netherlands and Germany, where prices rose between 18% and 22.5%.
Cocoa output in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, which together produce most of the world’s supply, collapsed in 2023–24 due to prolonged dryness and the spread of cocoa swollen shoot virus. The resulting global deficit pushed inventories to historic lows and sent cocoa prices soaring.
Prices jumped from $3.28 per kilo in 2023 to $7.33 in 2024, then $7.80 in 2025, a more than 120% one‑year increase and the largest spike ever recorded, said World Bank economist John Baffes.
