Chocolatier selling smaller bars amid price surge

A chocolatier says her business has started making smaller versions of products after their costs increased.

Sarah Hall said her suppliers "have had to increase their prices" after poor harvests caused by weather conditions.

Customers of her business - Tempur Tempur Chocolate in Southborough, Kent - can now "pick up a little bar of chocolate" if they do not want to pay more for big bars, she said.

The price of chocolate has gone up by 15% in the last year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The company said it imports chocolate made from cocoa originating in parts of Africa where "crops are rotting" as a result of weather in the "last couple of years".

Weather and climate change have had "probably the biggest impact" on the increase in the price of chocolate, Ms Hall said.

Severe droughts and poor harvests in cocoa-producing countries, such as Ivory Coast and Ghana, have restricted supplies.

Excess heat in the atmosphere as a result of human-induced global warming is known to be making droughts worse.

"The prices of nuts and even fruit have gone up so much" as well, Ms Hall said, and "everyone's struggling with the electric bills and the water bills".

The chocolatier said: "We're managing, but hopefully we don't have to increase again."

She was optimistic that the price "looks like its going to start coming down a bit".

The UK inflation rate remained stable at 3.8% in the year to September, according to official figures published on Wednesday.

But some items, including chocolate, have seen prices go up at higher rates.

Other artisan and industrial chocolate makers in England have also reported price rises or changed their ingredients.