Strafford creamery has transitioned to making maple milk instead of chocolate milk for now, due to a climate change-induced cocoa shortage
On February 6th, Strafford Organic Creamery posted on social media that they were running out of cocoa powder and unlikely to get more for quite some time. Amy Huyffer, who co-owns and operates Strafford Organic Creamery and dairy farm along with her husband Earl Ransom, explained that their supplier wouldn’t have more cocoa powder until at least June, and that it would be “almost certainly not enough to keep making chocolate milk without disruption.” The creamery either had enough cocoa powder for one batch of chocolate ice cream, or three batches of chocolate milk, and asked followers to vote on which they should make.
Cacao is typically grown within 10° north and south of the equator and thrives best in rain forest areas with uniform temperatures, high humidity, lots of rain, nitrogen-rich soil, and protection from wind. The cocoa plant is native to the Amazon basin of South America, but 70% of the cocoa produced in the world now comes from West Africa’s cocoa belt, which runs from Sierra Leone to southern Cameroon. This area is warming, thanks to climate change, and making it more difficult to produce cocoa.
A report by independent research group Climate Central digs deeper into how climate change is impacting cocoa trees. Human-caused climate change is raising temperatures in West Africa; climate change added about 40 days per year with maximum temperatures above 90°F in cacao-growing regions of Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana–two countries that alone produce over half of global cocoa. Coca thrives in temperatures up to 90°F, but higher temperatures diminish quality and quantity. Most of the cacao-producing areas that the study analyzed were experiencing these higher temperatures. Climate change also causes changes in precipitation. In 2024, cocoa prices soared due to inconsistent rainfall. As the climate continues to change, we will see bigger swings between very wet and very dry conditions.
Due to these climate change impacts, cocoa prices have been rising. From December 2024 to December 2025, cocoa prices rose more than 140% from the roughly $4,500 per metric ton average in January 2024, to $10,846 per metric ton in 2025. Those higher prices have been passed down to consumers– this Valentines Day the price of a 10.8-ounce bag of milk chocolate Hershey’s Kisses was $5.49, up from $4.89 in January 2024, or a 12% increase.
It has become difficult to source cocoa powder for local small distributors like Strafford Creamery. The Creamery’s cocoa powder comes from South America, where crops have been doing much better than in Africa, but the global shortage means the entire market is getting squeezed. Suppliers are prioritizing bigger accounts over relatively smaller ones. Miller Farm milk in Southern Vermont is experiencing the same issue as Strafford Creamery in sourcing cocoa for their chocolate milk, and have begun using chocolate disks instead of powder due to this global shortage.
As for Strafford Creamery, they are temporarily transitioning from chocolate milk to maple milk, which they are currently selling in stores. The maple syrup comes from Phelps Family Sugaring, about four miles from the creamery. One detail I haven’t mentioned is that Strafford Creamery is a neighbor of mine (in the Vermont sense of “neighbor,” as they’re a five-minute drive from me). When I called Amy to chat about the cocoa situation, she reminded me that the creamery had once made ice cream with nuts, including almonds and walnuts. During California’s most recent drought, they stopped making products with nuts altogether and have never gone back. Hopefully, for people like me, that isn’t the case for chocolate milk.
