Climate change is a key reason your chocolate Easter egg could cost more this year, according to researchers. Most chocolate is made from cocoa grown in West Africa, but a humid heatwave has blasted the crops and massively cut yields. Experts say that human-induced climate change has made the extreme heat 10 times more likely. Which? found some popular eggs have risen in price by 50% or more. The shortage of cocoa resulting from the heatwave has seen prices soar to almost $8,500 (£6,700) a tonne this week.Cocoa trees are particularly vulnerable to changes in the climate. They only grow in a narrow band of about 20 degrees latitude around the Equator. Most global production is concentrated in West Africa. In 2023, 58m kilogrammes of cocoa beans worth £127m were imported to the UK from Ivory Coast and Ghana with 85% of the UK's cocoa beans sourced from Ivory Coast. However, severe drought conditions have hit the West Africa region since February this year. This has been caused by temperatures that soared above 40C, breaking records in countries including the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Chocolate makers typically buy beans months ahead of time but soaring prices are now beginning to affect prices in the shops.Feeling the brunt of these price fluctuations are the farmers who grow the cocoa crops. There are estimated to be some two million smallholder farmers in the West African cocoa belt who rely on this labour-intensive crop for most of their income.
