Cadbury’s mean eggs
Easter eggs shrink by 10% in scramble to maintain prof its
IT HAS long been suspected by chocolate lovers, and now the Irish Mail on Sunday can confirm that Cadbury Easter eggs are indeed getting smaller – with some shrinking by almost 10% in the last three years.
Ireland’s favourite chocolate maker has reduced the size of its Easter eggs, the accompanying bars, or both, in an attempt to cut costs in the most recent example of confectionery ‘shrinkflation’.
And Cadbury had already reduced the size of its eggs by 7% between 2018 and 2019, blaming a spike in the wholesale price of cocoa.
Cadbury Easter eggs on sale this year were found by the MoS to be 9.7% smaller than they were in 2019, with consumers getting up to 25% less chocolate in the box.
The earlier cut means the four large eggs analysed by the MoS have shrunk by an average of 16% since 2018, with consumers getting up to 45g less per pack now than four years ago – the equivalent of a Dairy Milk single bar.
Other chocolate products have also become smaller in recent years, including Snickers and Toblerone.
The chocolate industry has been grappling with supply chain issues caused by the pandemic, a shortage of workers and rising energy bills.
James Daley, consumer expert at the website FairerFinance.com, thinks firms such as Cadbury should be ‘sharing the pain’ of rising prices.
He said: ‘We all know prices are rising, but to pass that onto consumers by shrinking the size of your products is deceptive. Firms should be honest with customers and, as they see their costs rise, be ready to pass on modest price rises but also share some of the pain.’
A spokesman for Mondelez, the US giant that owns Cadbury, told the MoS: ‘In this difficult environment, sometimes we need to slightly reduce the size or weight of a product so we can keep them competitive.’