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- Hershey says it is hiking chocolate prices</p>
<p>Ramishah Maruf, CNNJuly 22, 2025 at 2:59 PM</p>
<p>Hershey milk chocolate candy bars, shown here on May 3, 2024 in San Anselmo, California, could get more expensive soon. - Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</p>
<p>Your Kit Kat bar and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are officially getting pricier.</p>
<p>Hershey told its retail partners it is raising prices by a percentage in the "lower double-digit range" over what its chocolate products cost over the past couple years, a company spokesperson confirmed to CNN. The culprit: high cocoa prices.</p>
<p>Bloomberg first reported the increase.</p>
<p>Cocoa futures rose a whopping 178% in 2024 after a 61% increase in 2023, according to data from FactSet. That's because Ghana and Ivory Coast account for almost 60% of the world's cocoa production, and the region has been hit by poor harvests due to weather exacerbated by climate change.</p>
<p>For example, a study led by Maximillian Kotz of the Barcelona Supercomputer Center found an early 2024 heat wave hit there was made 4 degrees Celsius hotter due to climate change. Cocoa prices that April soared 280%.</p>
<p>Cocoa futures are currently trading for $8,156 per metric ton. Although that's 30% lower than the record high of $12,646 per metric ton in December 2024, it's still significantly higher than it was two years ago.</p>
<p>Hershey noted in its statement that the price increase is not related to tariff or trade policies. In its earnings call in May, Hershey said it anticipated $15 million to $20 million in tariff costs in the second quarter of the year.</p>
<p>The price increase "reflects the reality of rising ingredient costs including the unprecedented cost of cocoa. (For years,) we've worked hard to absorb these costs and continue to make 75% of our product portfolio available to consumers for under $4.00," a company spokesperson said.</p>
<p>In its earnings call in May, the company said it would also adjust its "price pack architecture," which basically means reducing the amount of product in a package, more colloquially known as "shrinkflation."</p>
<p>The benefit of this is "it's not a direct price point increase, but rather, it's kind of a combination of sizing and price, which can tend to offer perhaps a better value perception for consumers," Michele Buck, Hershey's CEO, said in an earnings call in May.</p>
<p>Swiss chocolatier Lindt said in 2024 that it raised its prices and expected to continue into 2025, due to a "challenging year characterized by record-high cocoa costs, substantial price increases, and weakened consumer sentiment."</p>
<p>John Towfighi, Lianne Kolirin and Erika Tulfo contributed to this report.</p>
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