The business of chocolate - and influence of the lucrative Easter Bunny
Sunday, 5 April 2026
Anyone who has been to a supermarket in the past couple of months will have probably found themselves pondering the price of chocolate Easter eggs.
The boxed festive treats and bunny-shaped figures not only appear to be smaller in size this year, but the prices feel a bit too out of reach for many, and the steep price in Easter confectionery has been a hot topic among Kiwis.
The supermarkets say the prices of Easter chocolate ‒ ranging from $17 for a 160g Cadbury egg box to $24 for a 200g Lindt bunny at the start of the season ‒ has nothing to do with them, and are the result of much higher cocoa prices, following a period of constrained supply.
However, The Post has been keeping an eye on chocolate egg prices over April ‒ and they have been fluctuating from week-to-week, under various so-called specials.
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A Cookie Time Easter egg box, for example, was last week advertised for $12 at Pak ‘n Save Silverdale. However, this week it was on special for $10.49.
Another example of rising and falling prices could be seen on a 200g Lindt chocolate bunny which was for sale for $13.12 at The Warehouse earlier this month, then priced at $16, and now at $13.
The hugely popular Mini Eggs ‒ the ones with a coloured crunchy shell and chocolate centre ‒ have been selling for $6.99 for a 120g bag at a “special” price this season, and an average price of $2 for the mini 60g bag variety.
Confectionery giant Mondelēz, which produces chocolate brand Cadbury, has a tight controlling influence on the industry, especially when it comes to the indulgent occasion of Easter.
You only have to look at its range ‒ namely the size of it ‒ on offer, compared with other brands available in supermarkets, to see its dominance.
In fact, it is hard to come by a boxed Easter egg that isn’t Cadbury in this market ‒ or rival giant Nestle, which produces the likes of KitKat.
Cadbury chocolate bunny figurines for New Zealand are made in Mondelēz’s Ringwood factory in Victoria, just outside Melbourne, along with a number of its mini chocolate eggs. It produces thousands of these daily in the lead-up to Easter.
Mondelēz produces 430 million Cadbury Easter eggs and 14 million Easter bunnies for Kiwi and Australians each year.
The company says its revenue from Easter sales is about a third bigger than those from Christmas in New Zealand.
Easter is a highly lucrative time of the year for all chocolate producers and retailers.
For Auckland-based Devonport Chocolates, sales of chocolate Easter goods are set to outstrip those of Christmas goodies.
Owner Sarah Gardner told The Post Easter was fast becoming the artisan chocolate company’s most profitable time of the year ‒ where it sells “thousands” of its festive hollow handmade chocolates.
“Easter is, if not our most, definitely our second-most, important season of the year,” says Gardner. Her small team plan a year ahead for Easter.
“If we had a poor Easter, we would definitely notice that for the year ahead.”
The company ‒ which has stores in Auckland’s Devonport and Commercial Bay, and central Wellington ‒ goes all out for the occasion. Its four chocolatiers and up to eight packers spend three months “constantly making and packing” Easter eggs and treats for the four-day long weekend.
Gardner said there was a bit of “exciting risk taking” involved in planning for a season a year in advance, but even in a down economy it was proving lucrative.
“When I say it's the second biggest season, it is marginally the second ‒ sales are definitely increasing each year.
“We've seen over the last couple of years, people are very selective about what they want to buy and … but are prepared to spend money to buy something that they know is going to be beautiful.”
Easter has become a huge occasion for The Warehouse. The retailer is one of the biggest sellers of Easter eggs and confectionery in New Zealand, alongside supermarket operators Woolworths and Foodstuffs, and Kmart.
The Warehouse says the quantity of Easter bunnies and eggs its sells each year, if lined up horizontally, would span more than 38,000 rugby fields ‒ or more than 12,000 times the height of the Sky Tower.
While it would not give specific figures, lead buyer of seasonal and celebration products, Melissa Carroll, said the quantities were in the millions, and the selling of Easter goods was a growing business ‒ both in the sale of chocolate and confectionery, and non-food Easter-themed gifts and toys.
“Post-Covid, families and the community have been wanting to create more memories and traditions. The customer profiles change, and customers want new and different products and different ways to celebrate Easter,” Carroll said.
The retailer has imported more international Easter eggs from the US and UK to give itself a point of difference from other retailers this year, she said.
According to Stats NZ, the country imported 26.5 million kilograms or 26,529 tonnes worth of chocolates and chocolate products last year, worth approximately $822.1 million.
What’s a chocolate egg worth?
A regular 180g block of Cadbury chocolate sells for about $7, but can be often found on special for $4.50 a block. To have that quantity of chocolate in a Easter shaped form costs $16.50, or on average $12 on special. But why?
Mondelēz told The Post a lot went into create an Easter egg-shaped chocolate, including complex machinery, the extra cost of packaging and transporting these goods so they don’t break, as well as increasing manufacturing and ingredient costs, that pushed up the price of novelty chocolate products.
The oil shock and uncertainty of fuel prices, and the cost of transport and logistics caused by the war in the Middle East will no doubt also be a factor driving input costs.
Mondelēz New Zealand managing director Bevan Adin said over the past three years there had been “steady growth in the volume of items sold” in this market, and Easter remained important for chocolate makers and retailers.
“Yes there have been increases, and altered sizes and configuration across items looking back over the past few years. The drivers of that have been general input-cost increases that consumers would have noticed impacting many items.
“But more specifically for chocolate, 2024 and 2025 saw a massive spike in the price of cocoa beans. This was related to supply issues out of the key growing areas of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. This year, prices have fallen back, but purchasing has all been done for the chocolate that is now on shelf,” Adin said.
“Like all manufacturers we have been doing our best to provide items of different sizes so consumers can still access treats within stretched budgets.”
In response to why Easter-themed chocolate costs significantly more than the same weight in a block, Adin said there were a number of factors at play that influenced this: “The main one is manufacturing complexity. The machines to produce hollow eggs, let alone hollow eggs with treats inside, are more sophisticated than production lines for blocks. Then there’s the wrapping and packaging. Easter eggs are more fragile. They have to be handled with greater care, and yet still there are more breakages and damaged stock.”
Adin, who says the classic Creme Egg is his favourite, said Easter was an “eggsistential thing” for many chocolate makers, and even in spite of challenging times it was seeing this occasion, along with Christmas, “treasured” by the consumer.
The latest accounts for Mondelēz New Zealand show the company made sales revenue of $294.9m in 2024, compared with $270.3m in the prior year.
It made an after-tax profit of $9.9m in 2024, compared with $8.8m in 2023.
Its FY2025 accounts are due to be filed in a few weeks.
Carroll of The Warehouse said the price of Easter eggs and confectionery was “a collaboration” between the suppliers and retailers. “We get given RRPs, and then we work with them on promotions and cost reductions to be able to pick the best value product.
“We look at a particular product, and if it's performing and we've brought it in at the right price the first time, we then continue that price.
“If we feel we need to show the customers more value against what the competitor is doing, then we go into bat for that; it's quite a science. It's really important for us as a value operator to make sure that it's the right price the first time, but where we need to show the customers how good we are we lean into that as well.”
On the pricing fluctuation of the 200g Lindt bunny as an example, Carroll said that had come in at $16, the retailer then did “a Lindt promotion” of 15% off then it went back up to $16 and is now “on sale” again for $13.
“We negotiate really hard. For us, it's very important to get the best price and the best deal, and then as much as possible again, have that right price to start. Countdown will have got the same cost as us, it's just the way in which we felt we wanted to bring Easter to New Zealanders.”
The Warehouse had intentionally gone all-out on being highly competitive on Easter goods this year, working to beat competitor prices, because it was working to make the customer feel that when they came into store they would get the best deal, Carroll said.