Why your chocolate isn’t chocolate any more: How heavy rain and high temperatures have

Heavy rain and high temperatures are causing cocoa prices to soar across the globe, leaving manufacturers no choice but to use cheaper alternatives in their products. 

Due to the lack of cocoa being used in certain products, two huge brands by biscuit manufacturing giant McVitie’s must now be labelled ‘chocolate flavoured’ after cost-cutting measures massively impacted their ingredients.

But the drastic price hike in cocoa is the result from poor harvests due to extreme weather conditions from key growers, including Ghana and the Ivory Coast – which was the UK’s top supplier last year.

Unusual rainfall and high temperatures saw prices more than double for cocoa futures in 2024, hitting a record high near £8.20 a kilogram in January, before dropping slightly amid predictions of a more promising harvest and lower demand. 

West Africa has been pummelled by climate impacts over the last three years, with extreme rainfall in 2023 which saw total precipitation more than double the 30-year average for the time of year.

This caused an outbreak of black pod disease, with cocoa plants rotting in the wet conditions.

The excessive and unpredictable weather was then followed by a drought in early 2024, typical of El Nino – the warm phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle, a natural climate phenomenon which sees warm sea surface temperatures in the central-east equatorial Pacific that can significantly alter weather patterns globally.

However, climate change is interacting with El Nino to drive even higher temperatures and more extreme weather. 

In March 2024, West Africa was hit with a brutal heatwave, which scientists at the World Weather Attribution said was made 4C hotter and ten times more likely by climate change.

This resulted in West African farmers going from having far too much rain to not enough, all under oppressively hot temperatures, which affected the sowing, growing and harvesting of cocoa crops.

The heat, drought and above-average rainfall hit the stability of production and therefore agricultural productivity. 

Not only does this affect the crops themselves – driving shortages, squeezing supplies of cocoa for global markets and sharply raising prices – but it also hits the people that produce the cocoa.

But West Africa is not the only area affected. A report by the Christian Aid charity highlighted how climate change is also impacting cocoa farmers in Brazil, Ecuador and Indonesia.

Like many other commodities, cocoa is traded on international markets, and the extreme weather events over the past few years have caused its price to skyrocket.

On April 15, 2024, it hit a record high of around £9,100 per tonne – almost 19 times more expensive than oil on the same date.

In mid-April 2025, cocoa was trading for around £6,340 per tonne, which is over three times more expensive than the same time in 2022 – before the extreme weather.

As a result of the high prices, the quantity of cocoa beans the UK has imported directly from producers has decreased over the past three years.

In 2022, the UK imported 63 million kilograms worth £134 million, in 2023, the UK imported 58 million kilograms worth £127 million, and in 2024, the UK imported 57 million kilograms worth £160 million.

This means that imports of cocoa beans to the UK have fallen by 10 per cent since 2022, while the cost has risen by around 20 per cent. The average price per kilogram has also gone up by a third, meaning the UK is paying more for less cocoa.

British chocolatiers have been hit hard by the price hikes. 

When the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released its monthly inflation figures in March 2025, overall inflation had come down, but food price inflation had held stubbornly at 3.1 per cent. 

For chocolate specifically, it had gone up from around 14 per cent the previous month to almost 17 per cent.

Now, two beloved British chocolates are no longer allowed to be classed as ‘chocolate’ – because they contain so little cocoa. 

Club and Penguin bars now contain more palm oil and shea oil than cocoa solids in their coating.

The biscuit giant had already been forced to describe other treats as ‘chocolate flavoured’, including Mini BN and BN Mini Rolls.

The move has also meant Club has to change its slogan. 

It used to read ‘If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, join our Club’, but now the brand says: ‘If you like a lot of biscuit in your break, join our Club’.

Skyrocketing costs of cocoa have led the makers of the lunchbox classic to change their recipe without dramatically hitting their customers in the pocket.

McVitie’s owner Pladis said in a statement: ‘We made some changes to McVitie’s Penguin and Club earlier this year, where we are using a chocolate flavour coating with cocoa mass, rather than a chocolate coating.

‘Sensory testing with consumers shows the new coatings deliver the same great taste as the originals.’

Pladis added it’s committed to ‘delivering great-tasting snacks while minimising the impact of rising costs on consumers, adjusting formulations only when necessary’.

KitKat White and McVitie’s white digestives can no longer be marketed as ‘white chocolate’ due to similar rules around cocoa content – but their recipes changed before this year. 

It comes as some of the UK’s most beloved Christmas chocolates have shrunk this year, new research has revealed.

Despite the smaller sizes, prices have surged by as much as 33 per cent in some instances, and the rising cost of cocoa is partly to blame.

Quality Street tubs are among the sweet treats shrinking in size, going from 600g to 550g.

Although the box has decreased by 8.3 per cent, its pre-promotional price at Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons has risen by 16.7 per cent year-on-year, The Grocer revealed.

The outlet noted that at budget supermarket Asda, the price of the 550g tub is cheaper than the 600g one was last year, dropping from £6 to £4.68.

Elsewhere, the 750g tin of Cadbury Roses has reduced from 750g to 700g in Morrisons, but the price has surged from £14 to £16.50.

Terry’s Chocolate Orange has also faced similar changes, and has reduced by 7.6 per cent in size. However, in Tesco, the treat has faced a 33 per cent price hike.

In Sainsbury’s, the orange-flavoured chocolate has risen by 28.2 per cent in price, and by 25 per cent in Morrisons.