Chocolate prices surge due to climate change, impacting Eiler Candy Shop
DOVER – The surging price of chocolate since January has left a sour taste in the mouth of John Gibbs, local chocolatier and co-owner of Eiler Candy Shop.
Environmental issues in West Africa, where more than 70% of global cocoa supply originates, have caused crop stress and damage, resulting in the doubling in the price of the highly sought-after commodity. To make matters worse for sweet shop owners just before Easter, sugar prices also have risen, up 8% in 2024 alone.
Gibbs is 62 and grew up watching his grandfather stretch sugar, eventually being allowed to fill his first mold with chocolate at the age of 12.
His grandparents started the business in 1936. According to Gibbs, the grandchildren were expected to pitch in and wrap hard candy being produced at the time. All the kids would stand around a marble slab and his grandfather would shoot a string of hot hard tack down the slab which they would grab and cut into pieces.
Manufacturing used to take place in the basement of a shop located approximately where the Ernest Warther Museum and Gardens parking lot exists until 1985, when it moved to the existing location at 225 W Third St. And, in 2004, the shop was graced by a visit from then President George W. Bush.
Gibbs said that his grandfather Henry Eiler and Mooney Warther were best friends and neighbors. They also worked together at the American Sheet and Tin Mill plant.
In the late 1980s, Gibbs inherited the business as a third-generation owner along with his sister. He previously worked in a toxicology lab at Walsh University. “They eventually laid everyone off because of changes in Medicare and billing, in addition to losing a key contract with the United States Navy," where he performed urine testing for the bad, bad Navy boys, he said.
“That was my job – I’d come into work and there’d be 500 bagged samples of you know what waiting for you. Not a good day,” he fondly recalled.
No control over prices
“I hate early Easter,” said Gibbs. “Easter is way more work and difficult. The problem with Valentine’s Day is it comes right after Christmas. You get all three major holidays within a three to four-month period. I don’t see my pillow very much – I see a lot of sunrises.”
He explained the economic background of commodities futures as they apply to cocoa, and wasn’t shy about informing anyone stopping by the shop with a posted email from his supplier located in Kent, prominently displayed on the front counter.
“Everything we use is a commodity,” Gibbs said. “And, chocolate is a commodity that can’t be controlled here in the United States, because it can’t be grown here. My wholesale cost of chocolate hasn’t skyrocketed yet. It went up about 20% with the last shipment, but like the letter says, April 1 is the day everything gets reset. I used to buy wholesale from the manufacturer, but over time they changed the amount small retail owners could buy, and I didn’t have room to store the bare minimum.”
Gibbs said he is not sure what he is going to do.
Eiler Candy Shop has experienced microeconomic supply issues before, but this one is different. This is a supply-side issue driven by uncontrollable factors – namely drastic changes in the weather.
“I don’t know where it’s going to go. It’s only going to get worse,” Gibbs remarked.
As of last month, the world price for cocoa has more than doubled over the last year, breaking the previous record set in 1977, according to a Wells Fargo report. In two months, the global price for cocoa shot up over 75%, from $4,094 per metric ton on Jan. 8 to $7,170 on March 6.
The International Cocoa Organization projected the global cocoa supply deficit to increase by 405% from 2022-2023 to 2023-2024. As climate change only heightens the threat to cocoa production, prices will likely remain high through 2025, the report said.
Can you taste the difference?
Gibbs said there is a difference in taste depending on the relative quality of the chocolate he is forced to choose from because of the current crisis.
“This time next year we may all be using artificially flavored chocolate,” he said. “I’ve got an order in for 1,000 pounds and it may four to five weeks. I might get it and I might not. We’ve used the same variety of chocolate for 35 to 40 years, and now I call my supplier and say, ‘What can I get?’”
If there is one redeeming factor in all of this, ironically it is the weather. Heading into the warmer months, the supply side issue diminishes because people want chocolate less often.
T-R staff photographer Andrew Dolph can be reached by phone at, 330-289-6072, or by email at adolph3@gannett.com. You can also find him on Instagram @dolphphoto.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Surging price of chocolate impacts family-owned Eiler Candy Shop
