Several chocolate factories have been forced to scrap products as Barry Callebaut's Belgian chocolate factory has still not fully recovered from a recent salmonella outbreak. This has resulted in a shortage of pralines.
At the end of June, a salmonella outbreak shut down the Barry Callebaut factory in the municipality of Wieze for six weeks. The bacteria ended up in the machines via a contaminated binding agent that came from a Hungarian supplier. This led to hundreds of tonnes of chocolate being destroyed.
The factory reopened at the beginning of August but only three of the 24 production lines are currently operational, reports De Tijd.
While the company did not predict a shortage of chocolate, there does appear to be one now. The Belgian factory accounts for an estimated 15% of Callebaut's worldwide chocolate production and has been unable to produce for several weeks.
Slow restart
The effects were also felt by Mondelez International, the world's largest biscuit producer, which is now unable to make enough biscuits of brands such as Mikado and Pim's, reports the French news agency AFP.
"We have had to reduce the availability of several products in recent weeks. This mainly concerns the Mikado, Petit Ecolier, Granola, Pépito and Pim's brands," a press communication stated. The problems also impact Belgium, as Pim's are no longer available on Colruyt's webshop; the online Delhaize supermarket currently does not have Mikado on offer.
Praline manufacturer Neuhaus is also receiving less chocolate than hoped for, according to CEO Ignace Van Doorselaere. "I expect that between now and the end of this year we will get about 15% less chocolate than we would like."
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As Neuhaus works with its own recipes and cocoa beans, Callebaut cannot just supply any chocolate to the company. "We only work with Belgian chocolate (that has to be made in Belgium), so the chocolate cannot come from factories in other countries. That makes it complex."
Neuhaus also stated that while its shops will not be empty in the coming months, they will not be as full as they should be. "Normally, we launch a collection of special pralines in the autumn, but we will not be launching one this year even though everything had been put in place."
Correction: This article was updated to correctly attribute a quote to Neuhaus, instead of Mondelez.
