The lovers of pandoro and of panettone can breathe a sigh of relief: this year purchase one of the two symbolic desserts of Christmas it won’t be a drain, as long as you don’t choose a product artisanal made by some famous chef.
It will go decidedly worse for fans of the chocolate nougat: here, thanks to the cocoa crisis, the price increases compared to last year are becoming serious.
Prices of pandoro And panettone: an analysis by Codacons
An analysis of the situation is outlined by the Codaconswhich monitored the retail price lists of typical Christmas sweets, which have already been present on the shelves of shops and supermarkets for weeks.
“For pandori And classic industrial panettonesthe average price in the main shopping chains varies between 5 and 7 euroswhich rises to 14 euros for high-end products; for those with the supermarket brand the price lists range between 3.50 and 5 euros. Significantly more expensive i artisanal panettonewhose average prices range from 30 to 35 eurosbut they also come to 60 euros if signed by famous chefs.
- explains the association – Compared to last year the price lists of pandori And industrial panettones they show a slight increase of approximately 4%but it must be considered that in the previous two years the price increases, also due to the effect of energy prices, had been particularly significant. The Italian market of panettone And pandori is worth approx 700 million euros nod, almost 100,000 tons of Christmas sweets produced by large industrial entities” – recalls the Codacons.
The price increases of chocolate and the case of nougat
The situation changes if we analyze the prices of Christmas sweets at chocolate:
«If for pandori And panettone in their variant al chocolate (frosted, with cocoa cream, etc.) the increases are on average 12.5%the record for price increases goes to the classics this year chocolate nougatswith the price lists of the main brands growing by 30% compared to last year, with peaks in some commercial chains of +53%. The international crisis is behind these significant price increases cocoa.
- analyzes the Codacons – During the year the prices of this raw material reached record values on the markets that came close to 12 thousand dollars the ton last spring, while today the international price of cocoa is higher by approximately 107% compared to the end of 2023. A crisis that has directly impacted the prices of typical Christmas sweets made with this raw material.”
Climate change and its impact on cocoa
The confirmation comes from Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (Sima)which resembles how i climate changes are increasingly impacting the environment and territory in such a devastating way that they also have effects on retail prices, and even thousands of kilometers away from the places affected by meteorological phenomena.
Underlying the price surge of cocoa there are «periods of drought prolonged, increase in average temperatures associated with sudden and intense precipitationwhich profoundly alter the environment and the territory, decimating agricultural production with cascading effects on the supply of certain materials and, consequently, on retail prices – states president Alessandro Miani.
And this is exactly what is happening in some of the main producing countries cocoalike the Ghana and the Ivory Coastwhich alone represent the 60% of global production. Here crops are threatened by long periods of drought which they follow torrential rains which create floods and facilitate the spread of viruses such as Cocoa swollen shoot virus disease (CSSVD)a disease transmitted by a species of cochineal that leads to the death of plants.”
Global deficit cocoa: a growing problem
The consequence is that for the season 2023/24 the global deficit of cocoa rose to 462,000 tonswith the stock/collection ratio reaching, according to theInternational Cocoa Organizationthe lowest levels of the last 45 years old», he concludes Sima.