Cocoa prices are soaring. Candy makers will need to get creative

There's pricing pressure taking hold of a specific corner of global agriculture — and it's bittersweet.

Prices of cocoa have more than tripled over the last year, creating a big headache for candy makers and other food companies that use the ingredient to make chocolate.

In recent years, the price of cocoa had hovered at around $2,500 per metric ton. But reports of a weaker-than-expected crop set off concerns about supply, sparking the commodity's run-up in recent months. Cocoa hit an all-time high of more than $11,000 per metric ton in April. The price surge has since eased off slightly, but the crop is still commanding well above what food companies are used to paying.

For now, many of the largest candy companies — Hershey, M&M's maker Mars, Kinder owner Ferrero and Cadbury parent Mondelez — are likely protected from higher cocoa costs, thanks to long-term contracts that lock in the prices they pay for key commodities to protect them from events just like this. That gives them some lead time to grapple with the issue. But come 2025, they'll likely end up paying much more for their cocoa.

"This is absolutely impacting the ways in which these companies are managing their businesses, just because the cost impact is so incredibly significant," said Steve Rosenstock, the consumer products lead at Clarkston Consulting, which advises clients on how to deal with problems such as the soaring cost of cocoa.

Mars declined to participate for this story. Mondelez, Ferrero and Hershey did not respond to CNBC's requests for comment.

West Africa, which grows the majority of the world's cocoa supply, has been hit by crop disease and lower prices paid to farmers at the point of sale, called farmgate pricing, that push them to grow more