WASHINGTON – As Easter Sunday approaches, chocolate businesses around the country have been preparing for what is typically one of the highest chocolate consumption periods of the year. Last year alone, Americans spent an estimated $3.1 billion on Easter chocolate.
However, because of high cocoa prices and the Trump administration’s trade policy, this year has been especially stressful for small businesses in the chocolate industry.
“We’ve been in a state of constant panic for the last two weeks because we were anticipating what would happen,” said Yelena Caputo, who is one of the co-owners of A Priori, a small business centered around importing and distributing craft chocolate.
Caputo explained that they do businesses with many global partners including in Vietnam and the European Union, so when Trump’s initial round of “reciprocal tariffs” were announced, they were incredibly nervous about the continuation of those trading relationships.
Moreover, even with the recent pause on reciprocal tariffs excluding China, Caputo said the remaining 10% tariffs have still caused a significant hit to their margins, which they have tried their best not to pass on to their clients.
“?We will be taking a very hard look at our margins, but at the end of the day, we’re a mom and pop small business. We don’t have anything in our reserves to contribute…? It is true that it is the U.S. consumer who will be paying the brunt of that bill, but we are just trying to mitigate that as much as possible,” said Caputo.
One of Caputo’s clients is a small business in D.C. called The Chocolate House, a small boutique shop with crowded shelves and tables filled with their latest Easter products.
Peng Xu, the manager of The Chocolate House, said that he had not yet felt a huge impact from President Trump’s tariff announcement but was “sure it will come.”
However, Xu said that over the last two years he had to increase the price of his products by about 20% to 30% because of rising cocoa prices. He still tries his best to reduce the impact this has on the consumer.
“This has impacted our margins for sure,” said Xu.
The price of cocoa per ton is currently around $8,000 which is almost a 400% increase from the average price range of $2000 to $3000 at the start of 2023.
Professor Paul McNamara of the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign said that although a number of factors contributed to the increase, one of the principal reasons was frequent weather anomalies in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana over the last few years that have caused significantly lower production levels because of how sensitive cocoa is to weather changes.
Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana account for roughly 60% of the world’s global cocoa supply.
McNamara also said that although the price increases caused some decrease in the global demand for chocolate, chocolate consumers tend to be “relatively price inelastic,” meaning that they will tend to keep buying chocolate regardless of the price.
However, even so, McNamara specified that this year’s Easter chocolate consumption could be lower than what is typically expected due to rising costs, shrinkflation and the weakening of the US dollar as a result of President Trump’s tariff policy.
“?This year’s gonna be an amazing year to study after the fact” said McNamara.
In fact, according to data from Cargill Food and Beverage Solutions, Americans are expected to spend $2 billion this year on Easter chocolate, down from $3.1 billion last year.
Professor Sylvain Charlebois of Dalhousie University said that the price of cocoa has been decreasing since December 2024, which he believes has a strong correlation with the new Trump Administration because of many consumers’ fear of an upcoming economic downturn thereby reducing chocolate demand.
“I think there is a strong correlation between Trump’s comeback and cocoa prices,” said Charlebois.
When people worry in the future about having less money, they would be less likely to purchase luxury goods, and chocolate, Charlebois explained, is one of those luxury goods.
In addition to the chocolate itself, President Trump’s ongoing trade war with China has also driven up costs of the materials needed to wrap or package the chocolate items for some businesses.
June Drummond, the owner of June B Sweet in Washington D.C., said that if Trump’s tariffs on China remain in place for the next 6 months, she will have to change the design and concept of her boxes.
Drummond said that they currently get their boxes in China but our now in the process of getting their boxes elsewhere.
“We haven’t found it yet, but it’s something that we are working on fast because I only have supplies for the next six, eight months to hold us,” said Drummond.
However, Drummond specified that because the luxury boxes used for the chocolates already significantly increased the price of her product prior to the tariffs, she had already thought about the need to change course. Trump’s policy may just force her to make that change now.
“It has been bothering me for a while … had we not created such a luxury package, they probably would’ve got the same product, but for lower cost. So in reality, the tariffs actually affect us in a positive way,” said Drummond.
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