cocoa causes prices to soar –

The traditional Easter egg is particularly salty for Italians this year, due to the record prices reached by cocoa in recent months which have caused the retail prices of chocolate eggs to soar. Codacons reports this, reporting cascading increases throughout Italy and for all brands. The price increases for chocolate eggs from the most well-known brands range on average from +16% to +24% compared to last year, and are added to the +15% price increases already recorded in 2023 – explains Codacons – For example, eggs higher-end for adults, with milk or dark chocolate and weighing between 320 and 365 grams, reach more than 18 euros per piece, with increases of more than 33% compared to the 2023 price lists.

Things are better, so to speak, for products aimed at children: the prices of eggs linked to cartoons, games, famous people, TV series, etc., increase on average by +16.7% compared to last year. On average, the production of Easter eggs in our country exceeds 31 thousand tons per year, with a turnover estimated at over 300 million euros in 2023: this means that, for the same purchases, the increases will weigh around 72 millions of euros out of consumers’ pockets. At the root of the heavy increases for Easter eggs is not only the cocoa crisis, with prices skyrocketing in the last year, but also the increase in prices of raw materials such as sugar, whose price lists have grown by +72 %, and cocoa butter, +52% – explains Codacons – The producers, therefore, have passed on the higher production costs to final consumers, through increases in public price lists which will make Easter more bitter for everyone.