Easter eggs are expected to be more expensive this year as chocolate prices soar, a financial expert has warned.
Jane Foley, Head of FX Strategy at Rabobank, has revealed the price of cocoa hasincreased partly due to drought in West Africa.
Speaking to BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme, the expert confirmed that the worst of food inflation may be coming to an end, but chocolate prices are against the trend.
She said: “We have seen soybeans come down a lot, wheat is relatively flat but if we are looking ahead to Easter and Easter eggs, well we can expect chocolate to be more expensive because the prices for that have soared.
“But generally speaking a lot of the inputs to food have been coming down for a while.”
Ms Foley explained that climate change has had an impact on the price of chocolate and there had been concerns about tea supply in the UK due to disruption to Red Sea shipping routes.
The expert added: “One of the reasons that we have seen cocoa prices go up so much is because there was drought as well as disease in the crops in West Africa so food over the longer term is going to be hugely affected hugely by weather changes.”
Grocery price inflation has fallen to a two-year low as fierce competition among supermarkets offset the cost of disruption to Red Sea shipping routes, figures released on Tuesday show.
Supermarket prices were 5.3 per cent higher than a year ago in February, the lowest rate since March 2022 and a decrease marking the lowest rate since March 2022 and a significant drop from January's 6.8 per cent, according to analysts Kantar.
The end of “Dry January” also saw total alcohol sales jumping by 18 per cent in volume terms on the previous month, with consumers buying 28 per cent more wine and 16 per cent more beer and lager.
Red wine was particularly popular, with eight million more bottles bought this month than in January.
