Escazu Chocolates, a bean-to-bar chocolate shop in Raleigh, North Carolina, sources most of its beans from Latin America. The shop said it has always worked with smaller farmers and paid them three to four times the commodity price of cacao – which essentially sets the minimum wage. The spike in prices has pushed up what Escazu pays those workers as well.
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Other cost-cutting measures include offering a smaller hot chocolate size, advertising non-chocolate ice cream toppings and moving to a cheaper location in Raleigh to save on rent.
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And like many small businesses in America, Escazu is being hit by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, affecting not just the chocolate, but also aluminum in its packaging.
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“The tariffs have hit every single piece of what goes into every single thing,” Tiana Young, co-owner of Escazu, told CNN. “There is no new normal.”
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