Chocolate prices have been surging recently, which made me curious to trace their trends over the last century.
Back in 1900, cocoa was pretty cheap and cost around $371 per ton. Then by 1977, poor harvests in West Africa caused the soaring prices to reach $5,700, but then the price recovered and fell back to $1,500.
In 1990, cocoa cost $1,250 and just $900 in 2000 due to the good harvest. In 2010, troubles in the Ivory Coast (political and civil war) and dry weather pushed the prices up again to about $3,200-$3,300. More recently, cocoa has climbed even higher to $7,390 in 2024, peaking near $8,400 in early 2025 due to extreme weather and supply concerns .
This is why chocolate prices have increased.
References:
Food Timeline. (n.d.). Cocoa history and prices. http://www.foodtimeline.org
Financial Times. (2024). Cocoa prices hit record levels. https://www.ft.com
ICCO. (2010). Cocoa market report 2010. International Cocoa Organization. https://www.icco.org
ICCO. (2024). Cocoa market review. International Cocoa Organization. https://www.icco.org
Trading Economics. (2025). Cocoa commodity prices. https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/cocoa
Winton, R. (1982). The world cocoa market: Historical trends and analyses. Cocoa Research Journal.
World Bank. (2010). Commodity markets outlook: Cocoa. World Bank Publications.