Easter eggs get smaller as costs of living crisis hits
The price of Cadbury’s Mini Eggs has rocketed by 25 per cent amid the cost of living crisis.
Shoppers must now pay £1.25 for a 80g bag, up from £1 last year, with Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons all hiking their prices in the run up to Easter.
Family size 296g bags have also shot up in price in Morrisons and Asda, from £3 to £3.50. While Mini Eggs bars are up 25 per cent from £1 to £1.25.
One customer on social media said: “The cost of living crisis has really hit home this week. £1.25 for a bag of Mini Eggs with about 15 in the packet.”
Maker Mondelez International said high materials and energy costs had led to the hike, but it tries to absorb rises.
Food prices rose 16.8 per cent last year, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Small, medium and large Cadbury’s easter eggs have reduced in size, but remain the same price.
The large Cadbury Flake egg remains priced at £5, despite dropping in size from 249g to 231.8g. Meanwhile, Cadbury’s medium Wispa egg is now 182.5g, down from 224g, while still costing £3.
Smaller eggs, such as the Dairy Milk Freddo Faces easter egg have shrunk to 99g from 122g, while the cost has risen from £1 to £1.25.
Easter egges have been hit by shrinkflation, which involves reducing the size of a product but keeping its price the same in order to improve profitability.
A Mondelez spokesman said: “We’re constantly looking at ways to innovate our products while keeping the fan favourites that the nation knows and loves.”
Last year, Cadbury reduced the size of Dairy Milk sharing bars by 10 per cent. Parent company Mondelez blamed an increase in production costs for the shrinking of its larger bars from 200g to 180g. The bars are still being sold at £2, despite the size reduction.
At the time, a Mondelez spokesman said: “We’re facing the same challenges that so many other food companies have already reported when it comes to significantly increased production costs – whether it’s ingredients, energy or packaging – and rising inflation.
“This means that our products are much more expensive to make.
“We understand that consumers are faced with rising costs too, which is why we look to absorb costs wherever we can, but, in this difficult environment, we’ve had to make the decision to slightly reduce the weight of our medium Cadbury Dairy Milk bars for the first time since 2012, so that we can keep them competitive and ensure the great taste and quality our fans enjoy.”
It comes as Harrods is selling a £250 Easter egg - known as Easter Showstopper Peacock Feather Egg. The egg is wrapped in a speckled gold shell.
