What’s next for chocolate? In Poland it is the most expensive in the entire EU
Chocolate has been increasing in price all over the world, but in Poland at an impressive rate: the price of a bar at the beginning of 2023 was PLN 4.3, and at the end of 2025 it approached PLN 10. What awaits the sweet tooth?
According to Eurostat data, in 2025 the increase in the price of chocolate in Poland was the highest among European Union countries and reached 32.6%. on an annual basis. The European average is 21 percent.
“Since 2023, cocoa prices have increased by approximately 230% and, despite the drop from a record PLN 10,000 to approximately PLN 4-5,000 per tonne, they still remain at a very high level,” Wedel explained the increases in October last year. The problem is that chocolate is made mainly from cocoa beans, which are ground into cocoa mass after fermentation and roasting. The key ingredients of the beloved treat are cocoa butter (cocoa butter), cocoa mass and sugar. Fortunately for Poles, cocoa finally started to become cheaper.
Chocolate will become cheaper in the EU
The reason for such large increases was the decline in production in the region key to global supply. Four West African countries account for approximately 70 percent of the harvest: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Cameroon. Poles paid more for climate change in Africa: primarily for heavy rains that destroyed cocoa plantations and caused the cocoa fruit to rot.
The forecasts for 2026 are slightly better. According to WalletInvestor, cocoa prices in 2026 will fluctuate mainly in the range of USD 5,500-7,000 per tonne. At its worst, a ton of cocoa cost PLN 13,000. dollars. “However, it will probably not be possible to return to the historically low price range of USD 2,000-3,000 per tonne,” predicts the Just2Trade portal, also because global stocks of this raw material are simply small. In March 2026, the price per ton of cocoa dropped to approximately PLN 4,000. dollars.
Smaller or cheaper chocolate?
Will chocolate become available in Poland? The matter is not settled. In 2024 and 2025, Poles ate the most expensive chocolate in the EU not only due to the increase in cocoa prices, but also due to the increase in internal costs – energy, transport and labor.
Manufacturers use raw materials purchased during peak prices in 2024, which means that a drop in product prices on stock exchanges will translate into prices in the store with a delay. It will be difficult to notice it, because in the case of chocolate, the weight of chocolate bars was often reduced to hide the actual increase in the price per kilogram of the product.
The standard chocolate bar, which once weighed 100 g, has been replaced by a product weighing 80-90 grams.
