Last year it was the so-called bacon apocalypse (or the “aporkalypse”).
Then beef prices soared.
And chicken wings followed.
Now economic analysts are hitting food lovers in their sweet spots, forecasting spiking chocolate prices and a shortage of wine.
The causes: increased global demand and decreased supply due to bad weather in the world’s wine- and cocoa-producing regions.
“The cost of taking a girl on a date just went up,” joked Sean Snaith, an economics professor at the University of Central Florida.
But local chocolatiers aren’t as amused.
“Cocoa butter prices, I believe, have gone up 70 percent or so over the last 12 months,” said Stephanie Fincher, co-owner of Royal Palm Chocolates in Naples. “We’re personally trying to hold on pricing as much as we can for our consumers, but we’re having to take a close look at increases, for sure.”
In the wine world, global demand exceeded supply by 300 million cases in 2012, and the future could be bleaker, a Morgan Stanley research report released last month said. The study blames the shortfall on increased demand – everyone will drink to that, apparently – bad weather and fewer vineyards.
“Data suggests there may be insufficient supply to meet demand in coming years, as current vintages are released,” the report said.
World wine production peaked in 2004, when the surplus reached 600 million cases. But the latest numbers represent the greatest shortfall in four decades. Americans drink about 12 percent of the world’s wine, and per-capita consumption is booming. China, the world’s fifth largest importer, has quadrupled its consumption in the past five years.
Snaith said emerging markets in Asia and South America have driven up demand, and thus prices, on everything from beef to oil to luxury goods such as chocolate and wine.
“These are emerging middle class consumers that, for the first time, have disposable incomes,” Snaith said. “You start looking past the bare necessities to some of the niceties of life. Americans did the same thing when our economy first boomed.”
Snaith said shortages don’t mean you won’t be able to find wine or chocolate, just that you will likely pay more for it when you do.
Fort Myers chocolatier Norman Love hopes his annual contracts with various international chocolate producers will help insulate his customers from price hikes. Love’s shop uses more than 175,000 pounds of chocolate each year, from artisanal Swiss chocolates to $25-per-pound single-origin chocolates hand processed in the valleys of Peru.
Love hasn’t yet seen 70 percent chocolate price increases, though he did see prices jump about 20 percent from 2010 to 2011, and increase steadily since.
At Decanted Wine & Beer in Naples, salesman Douglas Ferrie said they haven’t seen a notable change in wholesale wine prices. Ferrie said the wineries most prone to shortages tend to be higher-end vintners in the Burgundy and Bordeaux regions of France.
Saskia's Blog 
After continuous price increases of food items, it has now been stated that in the near future (approx. 7 years), there will be a chocolate and wine shortage, causing these products to only be affordable for wealthy consumers.
The increase in prices for these multiple food items such as beef, chicken, chocolate and wine is said to be caused by the increasing demand for the products and a decrease in supply due to bad weather conditions in producing countries. Therefore, as you can see in the graphs above, both show an increase in demand (right shift) and a decrease in supply (left shift). This also meaning that the equilibrium prices will change (in this case, both have increased). Consequently, this means that a consumer will need to pay more to consume the same amount of product.
For chocolate, Stephanie Fincher, a co-owner of a chocolate company, stated “Cocoa butter prices, I believe, have gone up 70 percent or so over the last 12 months”. Nevertheless, I have personally not noticed any large increase in prices for chocolate, however this is possibly due to the sellers maintaining the current prices for the consumers sake. Same for wine, after production increases over the past years, wine has possibly become cheaper for the consumer, therefore meaning they will probably consume more. However, this upcoming shortage will most definitely cause a significant increase in prices.
In terms of elasticity, since the majority of necessities tend to have inelastic demand and luxuries tending to have elastic demand, these products may soon start showing elastic demand due to the increase in prices.
Overall, the increase in prices for these items (that over the years have become somewhat of a necessity) will soon be considered and viewed as luxury products.