Easter confectionery rises despite cocoa price slump
Keystone-SDA
Swiss consumers are not being spared from the inflation that has hit Easter treats.
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The blame for the price increases is attributed to forward-looking procurement practices implemented when cocoa prices were still sky-high. In the last twelve months cocoa prices have plummeted.
Lindt & Sprüngli, for example, offers its famous 100 gram golden bunny at CHF5.95, compared to CHF4.95 a year ago. “We had to increase the prices of our Easter range because of the old high cocoa prices and our long-term purchasing strategy,” a spokesperson for the Zurich-based company explained to Awp news agency.
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The large retailers Coop and Migros made the same point, noting out that the three-way split in the price of cocoa beans over the past ten months is not yet reflected in retail prices. Migros has, however, applied some reductions on its Frey brand since the beginning of the year, but these do not affect the Easter assortment due to separate planning and production processes.
For their part, analysts at the US bank Goldman Sachs note that high prices continue to erode consumer appetite. In their view, the companies in the branch should therefore lower prices in order to revive sales volumes. It remains to be seen whether manufacturers will heed this call.
Translated from Italian by AI/jdp
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