Cocoa crunch for world’s top chocolate supplier Barry Callebaut as ‘perfect storm’ puts profits and shares in freefall

Barry Callebaut, the world's biggest supplier of chocolate to the food industry, warned on Thursday that another surge in cocoa prices had pulled down profits, prompting investors to dump its shares.

The Swiss-based group also cut its annual sales forecast after net profit tumbled 60 percent to 30.5 million francs ($36.9 million) in the first half of its financial year to February.

The company's shares plunged 21.5 percent on the Swiss stock exchange to 828 francs.

It said cocoa bean prices had jumped 95 percent on average during the period from the year earlier, citing "speculative buying" as well as "adverse weather" affecting some harvests, without further detail.

"The intense cocoa bean price volatility had a significant impact on the industry, customer behaviour and our financial performance," Barry Callebaut said in a statement.

It said price increases passed on to food manufacturers had weighed on demand, noting that some clients had postponed orders, with overall sales volumes falling 4.7 percent to 1.08 million tonnes.

A plan to cut costs by 250 million francs was also delayed by a year.

"The cocoa bean price environment and tariff uncertainties have created a perfect storm," said Jean-Philippe Bertschy, an analyst at Vontobel, referring to the US tariffs announced by President Donald Trump.

"However, the cocoa bean price has come down significantly in recent weeks from a high of over 9,000 pounds [$11,640 per tonne] at the end of January to the current level of 6,000 pounds," he said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com