Suffolk Chocolatier's suffer sharp increase in cocoa prices

A Chocolatier in Suffolk is speaking out about the increase in prices, as the cost of some Easter products have increased.

Charlotte Giddings, owner of Brownie and the Bean in Redgrave Diss, says her cocoa prices have soared nearly 400% in recent years, following a bad crop.

"Every time we get a new email from the chocolate company we hide in horror, because we know it means future price hikes.

"We were told in the Autumn of last year it would slow down as the growing conditions had got slightly easier. Unfortunately it's looking like it's continuing to just rise and rise, and that's one thing out of many."

Brownie and the Bean, like chocolate shops across the country, have been preparing for a busy Easter, making chocolate eggs galore ready for the Bank Holidays.

However, as prices rise, Charlotte fears passing the increases on to customers could have a detrimental impact.

"It's so incredibly frustrating, especially when it comes to baked products. Thankfully we have a wonderful customer base, but a lot of people's response is 'I could make that at home for like 30p.'

"No you absolutely can't. The ingredients we use are absolutely premium ingredients. You do feel like you're constantly having to tell people why they should buy from you and you're constantly having to reinvent the wheel.

"I would say the biggest struggle for us as a business, for the last year, we love what we do, but you're having to constantly find ways to re fall in love with the business. You cannot afford to not doing anything or move forward for five seconds because everything's changing, prices are constantly changing."

Last summer, ahead of the school holidays, Charlotte and her co-founder, her husband, sat down to figure out how to cost their products with the ongoing changes, something which she says took her husband six months to do accurately given the constant rises.

"It's so heartbreaking because everybody works so hard, and you deserve the right to make a sensible living.

"The one thing that sort of keeps me going, it's become part of our daily make-up really, we have to keep on top of this, and have to rise the prices wherever necessary."

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