The price of chocolate goes down: today it is much cheaper than in 1900

While some cocoa products may seem expensive today, the truth is that the price of chocolate has dropped dramatically and Americans today are paying much less for their chocolate than they did at the beginning of the 20th century.

According to Human Progress, in 1900, a 1-ounce Hershey’s chocolate bar cost 10 cents in the United States, while the average wage for a manufacturing worker was 14 cents per hour. This meant that a worker had to spend about 21.4 minutes of his or her time to buy that chocolate bar.

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Today, fortunately, the situation is very different. In U.S. chain stores such as Walmart, a 1.55-ounce Hershey bar can cost around $1.17. In parallel, the average wage for a manufacturing worker amounts to $36.15 per hour.

Thus, in 2023, it will take only 1.25 minutes of work to buy an equivalent amount of chocolate. In other words, the price of chocolate in time has fallen by 94.2% in more than a century.

This change is due to several factors. First, mass production and globalization have made it possible to reduce production and distribution costs. Second, advances in agricultural technology and efficiency have made cocoa production more abundant and less costly. Finally, rising incomes have allowed consumers to have greater purchasing power than in the past.

If you compare the amount of chocolate a worker could buy in 1900 with what he or she can buy today with the same amount of work time, the change is impressive. In 1900, 21.4 minutes of work bought only 1 ounce of chocolate; today, that same amount of labor time equals 17.1 ounces. This means that the price of chocolate has dropped radically because it has become 1,611% more abundant in relation to the consumer’s purchasing power.

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How is the price of chocolate in Colombia?

The cocoa market has experienced an unprecedented increase in value, impacting both producers and consumers. While Colombian cocoa growers have seen an improvement in their income, lovers of this product have been faced with an increase in the price of chocolate, mainly due to rising costs and new taxes.

In 2024, cocoa was consolidated as the raw material with the best yield worldwide, with an increase of 180% in its value. The ton went from costing $4,200 to over $12,900, surpassing even the growth of bitcoin in the same period. This phenomenon has been driven by a reduced supply from West Africa, the main producing region in the world, due to adverse weather conditions and diseases that have affected plantations.

In Colombia, the impact has been twofold, as Ana Margarita Villegas, founder of Color Cacao, revealed to El Colombiano. On the one hand, producers have obtained higher profits, given that a ton of cocoa went from $9,182 per ton in 2022 to more than $34,000 per ton in 2024. However, this price increase has made products such as table chocolate and chocolate bars more expensive. According to Villegas, companies in the sector have had to reduce the size of their products or modify their formulas to mitigate the impact on consumers.

Added to this is the effect of the so-called healthy taxes, which increased by 20% in 2025 and have further raised the final cost of chocolate. According to businessmen in the sector, current taxes can represent up to 39% of the price of a chocolate bar, making it difficult to access.

Although Colombia has the potential to grow in the export of fine and aromatic cocoa, experts warn that it will be key to improve infrastructure, sustainability and crop innovation to make the most of this market opportunity.