The final batch of indulgent six-packs of cookies by Dublin-based company the Drunken Cookie were delivered to customers across the country last month, after owner Saifa Kajani announced that it would be the last ever shipment as the business was closing.
A number of factors influenced Kajani’s decision, including difficult trading conditions in Ireland and the rising cost of raw materials, with the surging price of chocolate over the past two years playing a significant part.
“The cost of a kilo of chocolate has gone up by 80 per cent from when we first opened in 2021,” says Kajani, whose cookies were also sold at markets across Dublin. “About four months ago the company we get chocolate from gave us a heads-up that the price of chocolate would be going up again.
“We’ve tried to absorb the cost over the last two years and not pass it down to our customers, but there are only so many times when you can roll with the punches.
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“We tried reducing the size of the cookies in grams, but it barely made a dent in any of our costs. We increased the cost of our monthly box of six cookies by €1 about six months ago, but it became redundant because the cost of everything went up again that month.”
People weren’t really accepting of price increases even though the cost of raw ingredients has gone up for everyone
— Saifa Kajani
The Drunken Cookie’s two pastry chefs made about 1,000 cookies a week, with the hallmark of the cookies being that they were generously stuffed and topped with chocolate and confectionery. “We prided ourselves on every bite of our cookies having a chocolate chip in it,” adds Kajani.
Now Kajani has shifted her focus entirely to her cookie business in Dubai, The Cookie Dealer. While she is still contending with the high cost of chocolate, she finds Dubai a more favourable place to do business.
“People forget that, at the end of the day, the aim of a business is to make money, but we’re not here to rip people off,” says Kajani. “I’m so thankful to everyone who supported the Drunken Cookie, but there’s only so much you can charge for a cookie.
“I found that people weren’t really accepting of price increases even though the cost of raw ingredients has gone up for everyone. But in Dubai, I’m finding that people don’t mind paying extra for a premium product.”
Cocoa prices soared in July 2024 and again in December 2024, exceeding a record-breaking $12,000 per tonne in both instances, and have continued to fluctuate since then. This is due to a cocoa shortage caused by storms, droughts and heatwaves leading to poor harvests in the west African countries where the vast majority of cocoa is grown, and crop failure caused by a virus.
The latest Consumer Price Index figures, published by the Central Statistics Office in June, show that the cost of chocolate for consumers is up 17.5 per cent compared with the same time last year.
Some small Irish businesses are continuing to weather the storm in the face of rising chocolate prices due to the cocoa crop shortage, and have had to implement their own price increases, but are trying hard to adapt without compromising on quality.
In Wicklow town, Diego Negrisolo and Maurizio Bruno run cafe and restaurant Opera, and their wholesale business, Opera Patisserie, which supplies pastries to cafes and restaurants across Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow. Their team of five bakers produces about 20,000 bakery items every week, with about 60 per cent of these having a chocolate component.
They specialise in creating decadent, single-portion cakes that are appealingly displayed along the counter in their cafe, which opened in 2020. A large number of the cakes are chocolate-based, and Opera’s owners have been grappling with the increasing cost of using this ingredient.
“Six months ago, chocolate went up by 15 per cent,” says Bruno. “Three months ago it went up by 10 per cent. The cost we had to pass down to our customers was 5 per cent in each instance, but we’ve tried to take the heat as much as we can.
“We refused to give in and use a cheap chocolate compound as a chocolate replacement in our products; we still use high-quality chocolate in our pastries and our hot chocolate. We’ve had to strike a fine balance between using slightly less chocolate, importing chocolate directly from Italy without using a middleman, and adjusting price increases to small percentages. We’ve had to increase prices a few times over the last two years.”
Negrisolo adds: “We had some people complaining quite vocally in the cafe; they didn’t like the price increases at all. But I would really like for people to understand that price increases aren’t small businesses being greedy. It’s small businesses just trying to survive, and we’re just as exposed to the rising cost of everything as the customers are.”
In Celbridge, Co Kildare, Daryl Johnson and a team of five staff create an array of chocolate treats for Buíoch Irish Chocolates. Johnson founded Buíoch in 2020 and, along with his team, he produces an average of 2,500 chocolate items every week. The items are sold on the shop’s website, and a proportion of their chocolate is sold to corporate customers to be used as white-label products.
Buíoch’s specialist item is a chocolate hex, consisting of a thick hexagon of chocolate with honeycomb-shaped grooves at the top.
Running a business with an entire product range composed of various quantities of chocolate has posed a challenge for Johnson, as the soaring price of chocolate in the past two years hit Buíoch hard.
We don’t do shrinkflation; our products are the same weight that they were when we launched
— Daryl Johnson
“In January 2024, 10 kilos of chocolate was €80,” says Johnson. “In February that year, it went up to €120. In May it was €150, in June it was €177, and it hit its peak in July 2024 at €185. In the space of five months, the price more than doubled. So we had to do a price increase in July 2024.
“The cost of purchasing chocolate has stabilised somewhat for us since last year, but it’s still far more expensive than it was when we first started Buíoch. We’re still trying to absorb that cost.”
He acknowledges that price increases aren’t popular with customers, but they’re the only way he can continue producing the same high-grade product.
“Nobody likes prices being raised, but when the price of ingredients goes up, then the price of making the product goes up. We don’t do shrinkflation; our products are the same weight that they were when we launched. We don’t use cheaper products; we still use the same base Belgian chocolate that we’ve always used.
“In the current climate everyone has had to increase their prices, but if you’re looking to support local businesses, that’s the price you have to pay to help us to try to mitigate the rising cost of buying chocolate. But, at the end of the day, there’s only so much a customer will pay for an artisan bar of chocolate.”
