Lindt chief Ernst Tanner told Reuters that the firm could weather rising cocoa costs due to its premium positioning.
"From Lindt, we have invested (in) the past 15 years enormous amounts in building the brand, establishing us as the No. 1 premium chocolate around the world, and such a strong brand can also bear some price adjustments upwards."
Cocoa butter, sugar and nuts
Nina Keller, corporate communications at Lindt confirmed Tanner’s comments.
“The commodity prices - especially for our most important ingredients cocoa beans and cocoa butter - have risen steadily in the course of this year,” she said.
“One of the reasons for this high is the growing demand for chocolate products in general as well as in emerging markets such as Eastern Europe, India and China in particular.”
“Furthermore, there are increasing prices for other commodities such as sugar, nuts and energy.”
She said that Lindt compensated for fluctuating raw material costs through process optimization and moderate price adjustments on selected products.
Nestlé, Hershey and Mars
This week, Hershey announced plans to up its global wholesale prices by 8% in response to rising commodity costs for cocoa, dairy and nuts. Nestlé also said it would increase its confectionery prices in response to mounting commodity costs.
Mars recently told this site that it would not raise prices based on commodity costs as pricing decisions were made independently of ingredients outlays.
Cocoa prices reached a monthly average of $3,173 per metric ton (MT) in June, 39% higher than the same period last year.