Eggs full of hollow promise

It's not egg-cellent news this Easter. The hollow centre of that egg could have cost you more than $6, meaning thousands of Kiwis have spent their hard-earned cash ... on air.

Herald on Sunday calculations have revealed egg lovers are paying huge dollars for the air inside chocolate eggs, when comparing it with a block of Dairy Milk chocolate of the same size.

Chocolate eggs and bunnies with a net weight between 200-500g were bought from Foodtown, New World and The Warehouse and compared with the different sizes of Dairy Milk chocolate blocks.

The results show the chocolate blocks - ranging in price from $3.99 to $5.99 - will give you much more of a chocolate fix than the expensive eggs, which can cost up to $16.23.

At Foodtown, the Cadbury Great Bunny costs $9.99 - but the hollow centre will cost you $6.19.

The Warehouse's 500g Big Bunny will set you back $16.99, with $9.50 of that paying for air, and the luxury 300g Chocolatier egg from New World - which costs a whopping $19.75 - will see you pay more than $16 for the hollow middle.

To compare the equal weight and cost of Dairy Milk blocks to each Easter egg, calculations were done to ensure both were compared at the same net weight.

All calculations excluded the weight of packaging. (See box). A Cadbury spokeswoman said the products weren't comparable because of "vastly different" production and packaging processes.

"While they're both quality products, they are each produced under very different circumstances for different purposes.

"The Great Bunny is incredibly ornate and detailed with a high level of definition in the chocolate product to bring the bunny to life, so to speak. The packaging is also very ornate ...

"Given this level of detail, production of The Great Bunny is incredibly labour intensive and production for it is very specialised."

Consumer New Zealand chief executive Sue Chetwin said the calculations showed consumers were paying a lot for Easter egg packaging, but she was unsure whether it was a big issue.

"It highlights that what you are really paying for is the packaging and presentation but it's not like that fact is hidden. The chocolate makers could argue there's a lot more work that goes into making eggs and packaging than a block of chocolate," she said.