Family-owned confectioners, like À la Mère de Famille in Paris, are struggling to cope with high cocoa prices.
Photographer: Antoine Doyen/Bloomberg
Wild Cocoa Markets Push Europe’s Historic Chocolatiers to the Brink
Poor harvests in West Africa have driven the price of cocoa to record highs, forcing heritage confectionary brands out of business.
Paris’s oldest chocolate shop has occupied a street corner in the ninth arrondissement since 1761. Ownership of À la Mère de Famille has changed hands from family to family over the centuries, but it has endured through occupation and revolution thanks to the Parisian appetite for confectionery.
The store’s current owners, the Dolfi family, took it over in 2000 and now sell more than 150 varieties, from nougat to pralines to marzipan, from 16 outlets across the French capital. “This is 100% a family business,” said Steve Dolfi, one of the four siblings who run the chocolatier. “We produce 100% of everything we’re selling.”