Germany produced close to 1.14 million tonnes of chocolate products, equating to 13.6 kilograms per capita, last year, new data from Destatis has found.
The total chocolate produced was worth €6.48 billion, the federal statistics office noted, with 4.6% more chocolate produced than in the previous year.
Compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019, meanwhile, when chocolate production came in at 1.01 million tonnes, production was up by more than an eighth (12.8%).
Cocoa prices surge
However, in 2024, the cost of cocoa, the primary ingredient in chocolate, surged to historically high levels, Destatis noted.
In October 2024, import prices for cocoa beans nearly doubled, increasing by 91.5% compared to October 2023. Cocoa mass, butter, fat, and oil experienced an even steeper price hike of 114.7%.
This follows on from a massive price spike experienced by the industry in April, when cocoa beans (+208.0%) were more than three times as expensive as the previous year, and import prices for cocoa mass and cocoa butter had increased by 173.4%.
‘Although the increase has slowed somewhat since then, import prices for cocoa are still at an exceptionally high level,’ Destatis noted.
The rise in cocoa prices has been driven by crop failures in the main cocoa-producing countries in West Africa.
Little effect on imports
Despite these high prices, Germany’s cocoa imports saw only a slight decrease of 1.6% in the period from January to September 2024, totalling 540,400 tonnes.
The majority of Germany’s cocoa imports come from Côte d’Ivoire, which supplied 30.9% of the total imports during this period, or 167,100 tonnes.
‘Whether as Santa Clauses, chocolates, classic bars or in the Advent calendar: more and more chocolate is being produced in Germany,’ Destatis commented. ‘In 2023, almost 1.14 million tonnes of chocolate products containing cocoa were produced in this country.’ Read more here.
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