‘As high as you could charge’: Why Easter egg prices have surged 33 per cent this year

A 300 gram bag of solid Easter eggs from Aldi’s Dairy Fine is still $5.99 but has dropped in weight by 100 grams, representing a 25 per cent increase in cost per gram.

The reason for this year’s price increases has fallen squarely on the commodity price of cocoa, which peaked in January at $US11,081 ($18,526) a tonne, up 307 per cent over five years. Consecutive seasons of flood and drought in West Africa – home to 70 per cent of global cocoa production – have resulted in a 14 per cent fall in output.

Chris Jahnke, the chair of the industry group Cacao and Chocolate of Australian Origin, said the global industry’s reliance on the Ivory Coast and Ghana’s cocoa production meant that if “West Africa sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold”.

“Some of the plantations have very old trees that are reaching the end of their productive life, plus you have other farmers who are moving away from cacao into things like rubber and other tropical plants,” said Jahnke.

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Most global cocoa farming takes place in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, which have both been hit with US President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs – 21 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.

“Prices for cacao – even once, and if some of these issues are dealt with in West Africa – are unlikely to ever go down to the previous very, very low, unsustainable, uneconomic prices that the farmers in West Africa were being paid,” said Jahnke.

The rapid rise in cacao commodity prices has, according to Jahnke, made “premium” domestic chocolate – farmed on small plantations in Far North Queensland – more competitive. “People are starting to recognise that not all chocolate is the same.”

However, Koko Black’s prices haven’t been immune, with Gration saying they have kept increases to “low single digits”.

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Gration said the artisanal chocolate brand, which recently acquired Chocolatier Australia and its 5800-square-metre manufacturing facility, will help it quadruple output and reduce some production costs.

“The big focus of the business has been around: how do we drive overall efficiency? Cocoa’s an input cost, but how do we make sure our manufacturing is as efficient as it can be? How do we optimise other costs throughout the organisation?” he said.

“Some lazy manufacturer might just pass it on. We’re looking at ourselves internally first [on] how we absorb [it].”

Gration said he had found customers who walk into and experience Koko Black’s retail stores were less likely to be sensitive to price increases. “We’re still experiencing volume growth or unit growth,” he said. One in every two Koko Black sales are a gift.

“People aren’t just coming to buy a bit of chocolate. They’re coming for that cocoa experience,” he said. “We’re not a half-price block of chocolate or half-price supermarket brand.”

Michael Whitehead, head of agribusiness insights at ANZ, said while it was unlikely cocoa would return to pre-2023 prices, it was possible that Easter chocolate prices could return to form next year.

“Prices [this year] are probably as high as you could charge in a time when people are watching household budgets. Will they get much higher? Not necessarily, no.”