NVDA - Hershey 'Shrinkflation': Chocolate Makers' Cost Chaos As Cocoa Reaches $10000 Per Metric Ton | Benzinga
The chocolate industry looks a bit hairy in the run-up to Easter — a particularly choc-heavy holiday.
What Happened: Cocoa broke through a milestone, pushing for the first time through the $10,000 per metric ton level.
That means, in just 50 days, the price of cocoa has doubled.
Candy producer Hershey Co (NYSE:HSY) has already said it expects historically high cocoa prices to limit earnings growth this year, but that was more than a month ago.
This is a rise even more meteoric than that of Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), which added $1 trillion to its market cap in the first 67 days of 2024.
On Monday, Feb. 5, the beginning of the week of Hershey’s fourth-quarter earnings report, U.S. Cocoa Futures opened at $5,035 per metric ton (tonne). This was already a record high following seven consecutive sessions of gains, and the price was already up 24% since the start of the year.
Also Read: Is My Candy Bar Getting Smaller? Yes, A Chocolate Crisis Means Smaller, Pricier Hershey’s
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