Record-high cocoa prices are threatening to force allergen-free chocolate suppliers out of production, one founder has warned.
Julianne Ponan, founder of allergen-free food brand Creative Nature, told The Grocer she had recently halted production of the brand’s chocolate confectionery treats, Magibles, following months of record-breaking levels of cocoa inflation.
“We’ve had to stop lines because of it, because we just can’t put price increases through. In some retailers, we haven’t done a price increase in quite a few years, and we were getting pushback on putting price increases through on the chocolate products.
The Grocer’s analysis of Assosia data shows that year-on-year pre-promotional shelf price increases across regular chocolate and free-from chocolate have risen at an almost the same rate [11 March 2024 vs 11 March 2025].
Prices have risen by an average 15.9% across over 1,500 standard chocolate lines available this year and last in the traditional big four.
By comparison, prices are up by an average of 16.1% across over 100 free-from lines available this year and last in the retailers.
Despite this, Ponan argued that soaring cocoa costs were disproportionately impacting “smaller and artisan brands”, who “may have to be reducing lines or even putting very big price increases through” to make their margins, which would make their products “unaffordable for consumers”.
“We just can’t sustain it as a brand, especially when it’s free-from as well. Not only has cocoa gone up… we need to guarantee there’s no dairy on the same lines, and that’s where additional cost comes in.”
Reformulation efforts
Despite halting production for now, Creative Nature is currently attempting to reformulate its Magibles treats (which are similar to Maltesers) along with its brownie and chocolate cake baking mixes, to make them cheaper to produce.
It is trialling using cocoa fibre in its recipes “to ensure that there is still chocolate in there, but at a much lower cost”. The business was also looking at whether it could “replicate the taste of chocolate, with things like carob or grape seed”, said Ponan.
“The issue you have with that is you might not be able to get theobromine or the caffeine, which is what gives you that chocolate hit,” said Ponan. “Replicating that, I think, is going to be the biggest problem.”
Nomo senior brand manager Tara Stevens agreed with Ponan that allergen-free chocolate brands were having a particularly hard time amid record-high levels of cocoa inflation.
“As a free-from and plant-based chocolate brand, our manufacturing processes are incredibly complex and specifically tailored to enable us to ensure our product is free from dairy, gluten, egg and nuts, without compromising on taste,” Stevens said.
“We are working with retailers to navigate the evolving market, and our priority is to continue to ensure our products guarantee the same flavour we know our customers love.”
It comes as cocoa commodity prices hit record-breaking highs last year, triggered by a poor crop in west Africa, caused by extremely dry weather, and compounded by the spread of diseases such as cacao swollen shoot virus in cocoa plantations across Ivory Coast and neighbouring Ghana.
To mitigate the soaring costs, leading chocolate manufacturers, including Mondelez and Mars Wrigley, have recently shrunk the weight of their treats.
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