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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Chocolate prices have risen by more in Poland than in any other European Union country over the last year, new data from Eurostat show.
In May – the most recent month for which figures are available – chocolate in Poland cost 39.1% more than a year earlier. That was almost double the price rise of 21.1% across the EU as a whole.
Poland was followed by the Baltic trio of Estonia (which saw a 37.9% rise), Lithuania (36.5%) and Latvia (33.2%). At the other end of the scale, Luxembourg (5.2%), Cyprus (9.0%) and Italy (12.2%) saw the smallest price increases
The spike in prices aligns with a global trend. Analysts attribute the surge primarily to a near-300% rise in cocoa costs in 2024, driven by extreme weather, crop diseases, and chronic underinvestment in cocoa-producing regions.
“Chocolate is just one of the many foods being made more expensive by climate change-driven extreme weather,” Amber Sawyer, an analyst at the environmental think tank Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), told Al Jazeera. “These extremes will keep getting worse.”
Ghana and Ivory Coast – which together supply about two-thirds of the world’s cocoa – were hit by flooding, drought, and the cacao swollen shoot virus, slashing output and driving prices higher.
Although cocoa prices have retreated slightly in 2025, concerns over future supply and climate-driven weather volatility continue to exert upward pressure on chocolate prices globally.
Meanwhile, Poland has also faced persistently high domestic inflation. The sharp rise in the price of butter made headlines last December, prompting the government to release strategic butter reserves.
In 2024, Polish chocolate exports reached $3.2 billion, representing 7.4% of the global market, according to the International Trade Centre.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Kingaklos/Wikimedia Commons (under CC BY-SA 3.0)
Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.
