A local Tucson chocolate company is grappling with dramatically increased costs as cocoa bean prices have more than doubled, forcing them to raise prices just before their busiest sales period.

Monsoon Chocolate, which has operated in Tucson since 2017, is among the smaller chocolate makers feeling the squeeze from a global cocoa shortage. Founder Adam Krantz said the price increases have "fundamentally changed our business."

"There was a moment where say a metric ton of beans was about $2,500 which is a really low price," Krantz said.

But unlike major chocolate brands such as Hershey and Lindt, Monsoon sources from the specialty cocoa market, where they previously paid about $6,000 per metric ton of beans.

"It's not the same as cotton where you can say for the most part cotton grown h

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