Chocolate fever

After cocoa bean costs jumped to 15 year highs recently chocolate lovers could soon be paying heavily for their indulgence.

According to a recent CNN​ report speculators acting amid shortages in the world market supply of cocoa beans forced prices up by 50 per cent in London last week - a rise not seen since 1987.

Dutch premium chocolate maker Droste, which has about 72 per cent cocoa mass in its products, is predicting further price hikes on top of the four per cent it has already imposed this year.

"The way it looks now we will have to raise our prices considerably again next year,"​ a company official for the country's third-largest pure chocolate producer told Reuters.

Industry giant Nestle has already pushed the price on the Swiss market by an average of 4.5 per cent in August resulting in some confectionery prices rising between 0.5 per cent and seven per cent, the report continues.

Nestle spokesman Marcel Rubin said the increases were in response to competitors who had already increased their prices.

Cocoa bean prices have risen steadily over the past two years because of deficits in the supply and demand balance on world markets, but speculative buying has sent them shooting up in recent months.

Chocolate futures were trading at about £1,430 (€2,284) per tonne last Thursday, up from £978 at the start of the year and a low of £547 in December 1999.