When shoppers go out to buy candy this Halloween, they could face a real fright at the price tag on chocolate.
There’s no trick for this treat. Wisconsin chocolate makers say that global cocoa supply disruptions and Trump administration tariffs are skyrocketing the cost to produce the confectionery in the state.
Seroogy’s Chocolates in De Pere has been making treats for over 125 years, and general manager Dan Jauquet told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that cocoa prices have hit unprecedented heights.
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“Chocolate is seeing some numbers that have never been seen before,” Jauquet said. “It’s still twice as much as what we had been paying.”
A majority of the world’s cocoa is exported from West Africa. Jauquet said the region has seen periods of drought and flooding in recent years that is disrupting cocoa farming while demand continues to rise.
Even chocolate makers who get their cocoa beans from elsewhere are feeling the ripple effects.
Dan Bieser from Tabal Chocolate in Wauwatosa has formed relationships with the cocoa bean farmers in South and Central America he sources from, but he told “Wisconsin Today” the global supply disruption raised the commodity trading prices.
“The rest of the world said, ‘Well, as long as it’s up, we’re going to raise our prices too,’” Bieser said. “We worry about money getting siphoned off by the middlemen, and that’s why we try and work as directly as possible with farmers.”
The escalation of prices started before the Trump administration instituted tariffs on many of the countries the U.S. imports cocoa from.
Cocoa beans only grow well in regions within about 20 degrees north or south of the equator. That limits U.S. production to Hawaii or Puerto Rico. But Bieser said domestic chocolate is even more expensive than imported chocolates that have added tariffs.
“On the average, for one pallet, we’re paying an extra $500,” Bieser said. “We have to pass that on to our customers, which we hate doing. But it’s just the way things are going right now.”
Seroogy’s Chocolates has also been forced to raise prices in response to rising expenses.
Jauquet said he had contracted his entire year of imports at a fixed price, but in May, his supplier added 10 percent to all of his shipments because of tariffs.
So far, the price increases haven’t driven away Seroogy’s customers, with Jauquet reporting steady sales. But he worries how long that will last.
“Everybody understands that everything is high, not just chocolate, and it’s just finding it to be the way of the world right now,” Jauquet said. “You wonder what the breaking point is. We have not seen that yet.”
