Falling fuel, commodity prices may have helped Easter egg prices to drop

Tuesday, 22 March 2016

A Cadbury egg will set you back $1 less this year than it did in 2013.

Good news for chocolate lovers: Easter eggs are getting cheaper.

In 2012, a Cadbury supermarket hollow egg packaged with two chocolate bars, such as Moro or Pinky, sold for $13.99 or $10.99 on special. This year, Countdown is offering the eggs for $9.99.

In 2013, a Roses egg sold for $15.99. Three years later, it is available for $12.69 at Countdown.

Murray Harris, now head of KiwiSaver at Milford Asset Management, first studied the cost of Easter eggs in 2012, when he compiled an Easter Egg Index to try to work out why prices had increased 40 per cent year-on-year.

He said the fall in price this year was probably due to a drop in the cost of the underlying components. 'We've had a general fall in dairy prices and milk and dairy are one of the key inputs.'

Fuel costs had dropped since 2013, which would cut the cost of distribution, he said. 'It's good to see it flowing through to the consumer. It's a competitive market.'

The price of cocoa has dropped 1.5 per cent over the past year and sugar fell between 3 per cent and 9 per cent over the same period, depending on the grade.

'But these factors will also affect the cost of chocolate bars, so what makes Easter eggs different?' economist Mieke Welvaert, of Infometrics, said.

'The thing is, an Easter egg is made of more than just chocolate. There is a great deal more packaging going on and around Easter eggs, and Easter eggs take up a heck of a lot more space per kilo for transport. In terms of packaging costs, aluminium prices are down 16 per cent from February last year and prices for polyethylene, the plastic mostly used in packaging, have also fallen.'

She said competition would also play a big role.

'There could be more Easter egg products on the market. The period during which Easter eggs are sold could have increased, allowing more time for people to buy more Easter eggs overall and meaning that consumers are less willing to pay through the nose for Easter eggs towards the end of the Easter period.'

She said the drop in Easter egg prices had been seen around the wold.

In Britain, the average price per kilo has dropped 1.4 per cent year-on-year.

Countdown spokesperson, James Walker, said more than three million chocolate eggs would be sold over Easter in Countdown stores around the country.