It feels like everything is getting more expensive at exactly the same time as consumers have less money to spend, even our favourite cheap chocolate treats. There’s good reason for this: according to a recent blog by Iain Burnett (aka The Highland Chocolatier), cacao costs have increased by more than 400% since the beginning of the year. Burnett explains this is partially because of half a century of undervaluation; the recent $10,000 per tonne record would be doubled if cacao prices had increased in line with other commodities. The chocolate industry also routinely undervalues the work of cacao farmers, which means growing global consumption has created an increasing gap between the supply of the necessary labour and demand. Throw in reduced harvests due to climate change and a perfect storm is brewing. 

Burnett says manufacturers have to pay ‘a more reasonable price than we have been’. That’s a striking phrase: in most contexts, one would assume ‘reasonable’ means paying less, not more. Lana Messer of Glasgow’s Bare Bones Chocolate agrees. She and husband Cameron started their ‘bean to bar’ business five and a half years ago and have just raised their prices for the first time. Their cautious acceptance of the need to charge more is matched by a shared conviction that this is right and proper for all involved. ‘We went out to Uganda to some of the farms we get our cacao from, and I can’t emphasise enough the extent to which it changes lives. Becoming a speciality farmer opens basic doors like being able to get a bank account, through to gaining export licences that allow farmers to branch out into other crops as well.’ 

She speaks compellingly of farmers in Madagascar trying a bar that Bare Bones made with their beans, and their faces lighting up: they’re not the only ones. Rick Stein featured Bare Bones on the Glasgow episode of his Food Stories show, proclaiming ‘this is the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted’. Messer laughs as she recalls: ‘He said that the first time, but then for some reason they had to film it again, and he said something different. We were so happy when we watched and they’d kept it in!’ The episode certainly raised their profile, and they’ve now opened a standalone shop round the corner from their production unit, where you can sit in and sip (an honestly life-changing) Madagascan bean hot chocolate finished with Maldon salt flakes. 

There are no simple answers to the chocolate question, especially during a cost-of-living crisis, but supporting the people that do it fairly seems like the right approach. Perhaps this is one occasion where higher prices are the right thing all round. 

Bare Bones Chocolate, 7 Osborne Street, Glasgow.