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Mar. 28—With Easter on the horizon, Tricia Kummerer doesn't want to raise prices at Billy's Homemade Candies.

But after her chocolate suppliers quoted 70% higher prices over last year, she feels she will soon have no choice.

"Unfortunately there's just no way that I can continue on without raising prices," said Kummerer, owner of Billy's, which has a store in Temple. "I didn't want to do that during Easter season, so I'm just absorbing that. But after Easter is over, we'll mark up."

Kummerer said her supplier, from Belgium, sells her the chocolate that Billy's uses to coat the centers of its sweets.

"The outside of all of our candy is their chocolate," Kummerer said of her supplier. "It's definitely a big impact on our product, and what we're able to produce."

Kummerer's ordeal is far from unique.

Chocolate suppliers worldwide are dealing with extreme increases in the price of cocoa, with cocoa futures nearly doubling in price since the start of 2024 and breaking a previous record set in 1977, according to USA Today.

The spike is due to an ailing cocoa crop, which has been damaged by heavy rains and erratic weather conditions from El Nino.

Seventy percent of the world's cocoa is produced in West Africa, where the weather has been especially harsh, the Associated Press reported.

Kummerer said her supplier initially quoted her an increase of 25 to 30% on all chocolate, but the actual numbers have come closer to 70%.

"From what I've seen, I think it (the increase) has peaked at this point," Kummerer said. "The wholesaler is releasing new contracts for us in April, it appears it'll be closer to the 50% range but still significantly increased from what we were paying a few months ago."

Billy's is using the same distributor it always has, Kummerer said, but other wholesalers have faced similar situations.

She said suppliers also marked up prices last year, by around 20% to 25%.

"There were times last year when we couldn't get the chocolate we wanted," Kummerer noted. "It seems like that's very much the case again this year. I've had two weeks now where my delivery didn't come as expected, and I've had to go pick it up myself, after begging the distributor to set some aside."

She said the price of the rest of the ingredients that Billy's uses in its homemade centers — like butter, cream, and sugar — has been relatively steady, and sales volumes also haven't changed much in recent years.

Still, she said, the price of chocolate is putting pressure on the company.

"I certainly don't want to discontinue any products," Kummerer said. "I'm trying to make as little of a change as possible, while still being able to stay open."

Large chocolate makers have been affected by price increases, too. The Associated Press reports that the Hershey Co. raised prices on chocolate last year and has committed to raising prices to cover inflation.

In Hershey's case, the cost of that inflation appears to have been more than passed on to the consumer: Hershey's net profit margins rose to 16.7% in 2023, up from 15.8% in 2022, according to The Associated Press.

Local businesses like Billy's don't have near the resources of companies like Hershey, Kummerer noted, meaning they're more vulnerable when sudden fluctuations in the price of supplies occur.

"On a much smaller scale, it (the price increase) hurts us a lot more," Kummerer said. "We don't have those billions to work with."

The advantage of a small business, according to Kummerer, is tradition.

"We have been here since 1935, we do everything the same way. Everything is still made by hand, we use quality ingredients," Kummerer said. "It just speaks for itself...It's really an experience coming to our store and picking out candy that's made right here."