Supermarket shoppers are buying fewer chocolate Easter eggs this year, according to broadcaster NOS. In total, sales are currently down by around 12.5% when compared with the same period in 2024.

Marketing bureau Hijper, which carried out the probe, based its findings on supermarket receipts, bank transactions and data from chains like Action and Hema and compared them to last year’s run up to Easter.

Rabobank research shows that the price of cocoa has gone up by 50% to 70% since 2021. “We see that the price of chocolate eggs has gone up by 30% compared to last year,” consumer foods specialist Sebastiaan Schrijen said.

Nevertheless, the current price of eggs is not being influenced by the cocoa fluctuations of the last few months, Schrijen said. “There are contracts in place which have been agreed to six to nine months earlier. The price of the current batch is determined by the cocoa prices of last summer.”

The Hijper probe showed that smaller, more expensive150 gram bags of eggs are being left on the shelf. However, new flavours seem to be catching on, including the Bossche Bollen chocolate egg.