Europe’s Cocoa Slowdown Highlights Global Chocolate Struggle
Cocoa bean roasting at a chocolate factory in Paris.
Photographer: Cyril Marcilhacy/BloombergThe slowdown at Europe’s cocoa factories is deepening, highlighting how historically high prices are curbing demand and hurting processors’ profits in the top chocolate consuming region.
The amount of beans ground into butter and powder that’s used in confectionery probably fell almost 5% in Europe in the second quarter from the same period in 2024, the average estimate of seven traders, brokers and processors surveyed by Bloomberg show. That would mark a fourth straight quarter of year-on-year declines and the lowest grindings for the period since early in the pandemic.