Will Easter egg sales hold up to soaring prices? Celebrated on Sunday April 9, this holiday usually represents 8% of annual sales according to the chocolate union, or 319 million euros. However, the surge in prices in recent months also concerns cocoa: chocolate prices thus jumped 10.3% in February over one year, according to INSEE.
As a result of this increase, chocolate sales volumes for the first three months of the year (until March 26) are down slightly over one year, according to the firm Circana. However, they are falling less for the moment than for the whole of 2022.
€20 of chocolate per household
However, professionals in the sector show “fairly confident”, according to the words of Gilles Rouvière, secretary general of the chocolate union, to AFP. This one evokes a budget “rather stable” of €20 spent per household for Easter, highlighting the existence of a “very wide range” which allows “each family, according to its budget” to find pleasure.
On the consumer side, the Swiss giant Lindt has passed on part of the cost increases – raw materials, energy, packaging – to prices. But “we are convinced that our consumers will continue to treat themselves to the little luxury of a piece of good chocolate in their daily lives”estimated management in its annual letter to shareholders.
Chocolats discount
“The greater sensitivity of customers to price is a challenge” more “Swiss producers are holding up relatively well”explains for his part to AFP the president of the professional federation Chocosuisse, Urs Furrer, while the financial director of the Swiss group Barry Callebaut, Ben De Schryver, lists more purchases “at the discounters”.
In 2020, 15,000 tons of chocolate had been consumed by the French during the egg hunt. According to figures from the chocolate union, average consumption in France amounts to 13.2 kg per year per household. The French also stand out from the rest of Europe by their consumption of dark chocolate: 30% in France against 5% on average in Europe.