With the price of cocoa on a dramatic rise, one Ottawa chocolatier is looking for ways to sweeten the deal to continue to attract customers. Heinrich Stubbe, owner and master chocolatier at Stubbe Chocolates Ottawa on Wellington Street West, said his raw supply costs have gone up by as much as 300 per cent over […]
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With the price of cocoa on a dramatic rise, one Ottawa chocolatier is looking for ways to sweeten the deal to continue to attract customers.
Heinrich Stubbe, owner and master chocolatier at Stubbe Chocolates Ottawa on Wellington Street West, said his raw supply costs have gone up by as much as 300 per cent over the past 12 to 18 months.
“It is very difficult to adapt. With every order, we have a price increase. We cannot say, ‘The price is up by 25 per cent, so our prices go up by 25 per cent.’ The customer will be totally confused,” Stubbe told OBJ.
So, why the price increase in raw materials, such as cocoa butter? Cocoa farmers along the equator have been seeing a shortage due to droughts, disease and other external factors. So even when Stubbe does increase the prices of his chocolate, he said he’s none the richer as the extra cash goes straight to the farmers in Central and South America and Africa.
“The problem we face is, ‘Can we believe the supplier?’ Since last year, we’ve gotten comments from our supplier and the sources (saying) it is because of a shortage in cocoa butter … Let’s say in Ivory Coast, their crop was not very good. I cannot go over to the Ivory Coast to see whether it’s really the truth,” Stubbe said.
He added that, if one country increases the price of its raw supply, other countries wait to see if that price will be accepted by the market and may then follow suit, meaning confectioners like Stubbe pay more for their ingredients, no matter where they source them from.
According to a December 2024 report from J.P. Morgan, cocoa prices have “skyrocketed,” reaching historical highs of nearly US$10,000 per metric ton in early 2024. The report said that the rise in cocoa prices is largely due to a global cocoa shortage, which has persisted since early 2024. Disease pressures, climate change and threatening weather have ravaged crops in West Africa, which contributes around 80 per cent of the world’s cocoa output, and cocoa availability is at historical lows, the report said.
Here in Ottawa, not only has Stubbe been trying to tackle issues related to the increasing price of cocoa, he told OBJ he’s struggled with securing supply, especially when the world’s cosmetic companies snap up cocoa butter for their products.
“We shouldn’t forget that the cosmetic industry likes to have cocoa butter as well. If you look into skin creams and balms, there’s always cocoa butter involved. Obviously, the cosmetics industry can pay much higher prices than the little ordinary pastry chef,” he said.
“There is no consistency anymore. When I was in apprenticeship, there was always a consistent flow of raw material. You were really able to count on it. That is not the case anymore. We always have to adapt to a certain situation in the world market,” Stubbe added.
Despite all the hurdles, Stubbe said he doesn’t want to compromise the quality of his products by switching to lower-quality ingredients for the sake of affordability.
“I’m not worried about the competition. I don’t want to change the quality. It is so easy to change quality but that’s not my style. We have a reputation – 36 years in Ottawa – for the highest quality,” Stubbe said of his family business, which was originally founded in Germany in 1845.
He said he will continue to work with Belgian chocolate and the same European ingredients, such as orange peel from Italy, but will look for suppliers who can deliver it at a better price.
“You try to find the same quality, maybe from a different supplier, or a supplier who likes to get into the market and is more economical than the established guys. This is constant research,” he said.
As with many other businesses, Stubbe said other supply issues, including for items such as packing materials, started during the pandemic and haven’t stopped. In an effort to give customers a more economical option, he said he started packaging chocolates in paper bags instead of boxes.
Demand for his chocolate products is still strong with the Ottawa public, Stubbe said, though customers have been walking away having bought less than they did before.
“When we talk to customers and they realize there is a price increase, they still like our chocolate but they buy less. The 24-piece box can hardly sell. Everybody that went for the 24-piece (box), they go for the 15-piece (box) now,” he said.
Stubbe said that, despite struggles behind the scenes, the show must go on. He said he is continuing to come up with new product offerings to attract customers, even if a little reluctantly.
“I still make the same amount of things, even if I’ve had to edit a couple of things. I don’t like to follow trends, but sometimes you get pushed by customers and there is a demand for it. The ‘Dubai bar’ has gone viral so, after a couple of requests, we said ‘Okay, let’s do the Dubai bar,’” Stubbe said, adding that he put his own spin on the viral treat by increasing the amount of pistachios in the chocolate bar.
The Dubai chocolate bar is milk chocolate with a filling consisting of pistachio butter and a crispy phyllo pastry called kataifi.
While some supply roadblocks are short-lived, Stubbe said he expects the issues with cocoa products to continue.
“It might slow down in the summer but as soon as the holidays approach, there will be another note from my supplier saying that he has to increase (price) by 10 or 20 per cent,” he said.
Anticipating those changes, Stubbe said he may have to alter some of his seasonal products.
“We will see what the market can afford. For instance, the Santa Clauses. We had a big (chocolate) Santa Claus, approximately a metre (tall). You cannot sell this anymore, so now we go for 50 centimetres. That may be the maximum for this coming season, maybe even less (at) 30 centimetres,” he said.
Stubbe said he will have to go with the flow to continue providing Ottawa with one of life’s little pleasures – chocolate.
“We just have to live with it. It’s the cost of living. I don’t see it, for us, as a luxury item. It should be consumed on a daily basis,” he said.
