AUSTRALIA | Chocolate treats from Cadbury, Nestle and Aldi are the latest to be hit by shrinkflation.
CHOICE has uncovered several examples of the Easter shrinkage, which has Australians sometimes paying as much as 33 percent more per 100g of chocolate.
Brands and industry experts said the changes were due to cocoa prices reaching record highs last year and remaining volatile ever since.
Two Easter treats from chocolate giant Cadbury have recently been replaced with smaller versions, with prices increasing or remaining the same.
Last March, retailers were selling a 24-pack of Cadbury Dairy Milk hollow chocolate eggs designed for Easter hunts, with a recommended retail price (RRP) of AUD 12.50.
But anyone buying the same product this year expecting to get the same number of eggs will be left hunting around for a missing two.
Last Easter's box has been replaced with a version that comes with only 22 eggs, making it 34 grams lighter than its predecessor.
Another lighter Easter item on the shelves this year is Cadbury's 340g large chocolate egg – going for AUD 20 at major retailers. This milk chocolate treat has become an attractive addition to any Easter spread, but it may taste a little bitter once consumers discover they could've been getting more chocolate for the same price last year.
Cadbury owner Mondelēz International confirmed to CHOICE that the egg currently on sale has replaced another that was sold last Easter. It cost AUD 20, but it weighed an extra 60 grams.
Another international chocolate giant, Nestle, has also reduced the size of some of its Easter products. The company's bags of KitKat-flavoured mini eggs have become even smaller, going from 110g to 90g since last February, while the price at supermarkets has stayed at AUD 3.99.
Retailers are also guilty of the shrinking sin, offering shoppers less chocolate for their buck with certain home-brand Easter products.
People who have bought Aldi's Dairy Fine Milk mini eggs in the past may have noticed that these treats no longer come in the 400g packets they were available in last February.
While the price has remained the same at AUD 5.99, a cut in size to 300g means consumers are now paying 33 percent more per 100g to get their chocolate fix.
Significant increases in cocoa costs have been a key factor being blamed for the shrinkage. In early 2024, cocoa prices jumped to levels Nestle and Mondelēz described to CHOICE as "unprecedented."
Prices have since dropped slightly but remain volatile, and manufacturers said the historically high costs of this key chocolate ingredient have been a major reason for the shrinkage of this year's Easter chocolates.
Aldi similarly mentioned the rising cost of raw ingredients behind its changes. Both the supermarket and Nestle said they had chosen to cut the size of their products instead of hiking their prices.
Chocolate products have often been featured in CHOICE investigations into shrinkflation over recent years. In the last year, the makers of these products have often pointed to high cocoa prices as the major reason for their cutbacks.
Pia Piggott, an analyst at Rabobank, an agricultural bank studying key chocolate inputs, agreed that cocoa prices were likely a major cause of this latest round of shrinkflation.
Shortages are due to factors unfolding in the West African countries where much of the world's cocoa comes from
She said that consecutive years of low cocoa supplies are behind the high prices and that these shortages are due to factors unfolding in the West African countries from which much of the world's cocoa comes.
"Crop diseases have an impact on production, but farmers also have other problems like ageing trees and adverse weather," said Piggott.
"But the most important thing is probably poor soil fertility management. Farmers previously weren't getting enough money to be able to afford to apply the right amount of fertiliser to produce cocoa.”
Even though cocoa prices aren't as high as they were late last year, Piggott added that because major chocolate producers usually agreed on prices for this key input a year or more in advance, consumers won't necessarily see an instant drop in shelf prices.
In a recent report following an inquiry into Australia's supermarkets, the ACCC recommended that retailers tell shoppers when a product has undergone shrinkflation.
The regulator said businesses would do this by putting notices in their aisles and publishing updates on their websites, which aligned with approaches already adopted by some grocery retailers overseas.
CHOICE has repeatedly made this suggestion during its extensive investigations into shrinkflation. If implemented, it could improve transparency and help Australians make better-informed decisions while shopping.
