Can Central New Yorkers expect to pay more for Valentine’s Day candy this year because of the cocoa shortage? We checked in with some local shops to find out. The Speach Family Candy Shoppe negotiates chocolate supplier pricing for six month periods, and their current contract is through May. President and Head Chocolatier Michael Speach says the cost of ingredients is always rising.
“We actually blend all of our own chocolates. So the chocolate that actually getting here the candy store is a combination of several different products that are actually mixed together… and we actually then put that out for the product for different things. And one of the products alone actually went up about 23 percent in the last few years.”
Speach says as long as customers are interested, he’s willing to pay more for higher quality ingredients to produce the best quality chocolates and candy.
“We’ve been kinda seeing this trend for awhile where the scarcity of cocoa has kinda been continuing on, probably for the last few years. Unfortunately, I think it’s starting to now fall upon the consumer even more so. I think part of that the part of that is the sticker shock that people are seeing now that the scarcity is becoming very, very apparent when you’re actually going and shopping for good quality product.”
The line was out the door at Sweet On Chocolate in Armory Square on Valentine’s Eve. Owner Adam Mazzoni says the chocolate bean shortage from West Africa isn’t noticeable.
“At least as of yet, the chocolate bean shortage, I don’t think the effects have quite trickled down, yet. But, it could just be like anything, it’s got to work its way through the supply chain and then I’m sure we’ll be seeing some price fluctuation.”
Mazzoni says they also prepare white chocolate, but it doesn’t get as much love as darker chocolates. He says Valentine’s Day will be their busiest day of the year only second to February 13th. Meanwhile, Michael Speach says most of his business comes from wholesale clients across 49 states, followed by online orders and in person customers.
