Valentine's Day chocolates could set you back more this year as global cocoa prices surge to a record high.

Bad weather conditions impacting crops in West Africa sent prices on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in New York to US$5,874 (€5,487) a tonne last week.

The cost of the core ingredient for making chocolate has almost doubled - rising about 90% - since the start of last year.

US chocolate manufacturer Hershey has said it is expecting a further slowdown in demand for its products from cash-conscious customers after its sales fell by 6.6% in the fourth quarter.

It also said higher cocoa prices are likely to limit its earnings this year.

Volumes at its rival, Mondelez - which manufactures brands including Cadbury and Toblerone - also fell last quarter.

Tara Gartlan, Owner of Tara Gartlan Chocolate, told Newstalk Breakfast this is bad news.

"Apparently it is related to climate change as well as really severe, unsustainable farming practices - along with bad weather.

"Cocoa grows on farms the same as any other crop, and with bad weather there can be really low yield or diseased crops and then you end up with not very much cocoa.

"Cocoa pods looks kind of like a large fruit and inside it's got white, pulpy flesh and they have cocoa beans.

"There's a very scientific process to make it but everything has to grow these beautiful cocoa pods".

Ms Gartlan said different chocolate has different flavour profiles.

"In different regions - if it's grown in South America or Peru or the Ivory Coast - you get different flavour profiles.

A bar of Cadbury's milk chocolate, 16-1-10. Image: Stuart Aylmer / Alamy

Ms Gartlan said shrinkflation is also a problem for consumers.

"The product sizes get smaller but the outer packaging remains the same and the price for the [larger] product is still there," she said.

"I started only recently shipping nationwide and I so I've gotten very much into packaging.

"I picked up Easter eggs on Monday - my actual heart sank when I picked up some of them.

"The box was the same size as it was last year and some of these weren't cheap Easter eggs.

"They were a €49 egg for only 300g of chocolate," she added.

Ms Gartlan said she bulk-bought her chocolate last week to avoid a 15% increase this week.

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Main image: Closeup of chocolates, 22-10-10. Image: Leonid Nyshko / Alamy