Price of a sweet Easter goes up

Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate buttons Easter eggs have gone up in price. Photo / Richard Robinson

Chocolate-lovers can expect to shell out a bit more for their Easter eggs this year with prices for the annual treats rising because of the increasing cost of cocoa.

Chocolate makers say they are facing rising costs - largely because of political tension in the Ivory Coast where most of the world's cocoa comes from - but also because of rising dairy and sugar prices.

Rising oil costs are also being blamed for the prices because the products are transported by ship or truck.

Easter egg prices in Britain have risen sharply with a 324g Galaxy Minstrels Egg up 140 per cent and Cadbury's Twirl and Dairy Milk eggs up 64 per cent.

In New Zealand, a 105g Cadbury chocolate button egg is on special at New World for $4.99, compared with a sale price of $3.89 last year - a 28 per cent rise.

Statistics New Zealand Food Price Index data shows that a 250g block of chocolate has risen from $3.21 in July 2007 to $3.76 in February this year, a rise of more than 17 per cent.

The price changes are weighted and take into account Cadbury's decision in 2009 to reduce the size of chocolate blocks from 250g to 200g.

Whittaker's marketing manager, Philip Poole, said the chocolate maker was facing rising production costs overall - mostly because of the Ivory Coast situation.

While Whittaker's bought its beans from Ghana, the problems in the Ivory Coast dented the world's cocoa bean supplies, increasing demand - and in turn, prices - for cocoa beans sourced elsewhere, Mr Poole said.

Milk powder and sugar prices had also increased.

The price of nuts, used in many products, had risen, as had the price of fuel needed for transport, he said.

Foodstuffs Auckland general manager retail Rob Chemaly acknowledged "a small increase in the price of chocolate since 2009" which he said was largely because of rising commodity costs associated with ingredients.

"We are unable to give prices for specific products as this is commercially sensitive to our business. But we can confirm that the retail price increases vary across the category and are primarily driven by the wholesale prices we have to pay our suppliers."