Bakeries forced to hike costs, downsize Valentine's Day treats as ingredient prices surge

This Valentine's Day is bittersweet for bakery owners as they grapple with sky-high ingredient prices and customers who are reluctant to pay more for the same product.

"Last year we were paying around $25 for a five-pound bag of cocoa. This year it's upwards of $50. In terms of brownies and chocolate cake, our prices are increasing, but unfortunately, we can't charge more for our baked goods because people aren't willing to pay it," Just Baked Bakery and Deli co-owner Katlyn Swaffer told "Fox & Friends First" Wednesday.

The cost of cream and strawberries is also hitting the Oklahoma-based business hard, each nearly doubling within the past year.

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"Last year, we were paying $25 to $30 for a case. This year, we paid almost $55 for a case and not really very many people want to pay over $40 for a dozen chocolate covered strawberries," she continued.

Geraldine Keough, CEO of The Dessert Ladies in New Jersey, is experiencing similar struggles, telling Fox News after raising prices due to inflation last year, the business was forced to sell smaller packages to help curb costs this year. 

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"Everything we buy right now is up," she said. "We've taken the approach of taking our product [and] making smaller packages of it because we're finding our customers still want to buy. They want to be able to acknowledge their friends and family with kind of sweet treats and fabulous things, but they want to buy less.

"We've had to make a big shift in how we present our products, and how we package them for them, so we can give them good value."

The price of cocoa – which has been on the rise due to crop damage in West Africa – surged to an all-time high last week, and ongoing shortages are putting a squeeze on chocolate manufacturers, who are in turn passing the price hikes on to customers.

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While small businesses are bearing the hefty brunt of high food costs, consumers feel its wrath as well.

According to a recent report from The Washington Post, low income families have been hit the hardest by their trips to the grocery store, spending 31% of their income on food, compared to 8% for wealthier Americans. 

Meanwhile, President Biden has suggested corporate greed is to blame, telling voters during a speech at the South Carolina’s First in the Nation Dinner in Columbia, South Carolina, "Inflation is coming down.  It’s now lower in America than any other major economy in the world."

"The cost of eggs, milk, chicken, gas, and so many other essential items have come down. But for all we’ve done to bring prices down, there are still too many corporations in America ripping people off: price gouging, junk fees, greedflation, shrinkflation," he continued.

FOX Business' Breck Dumas and Fox News' Kristine Parks contributed to this report.

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