Cadbury Dairy Milk prices have rocketed by as much as 12% in the past month, following a short crop of cocoa in West Africa.
The base price of Dairy Milk 110g rose in Sainsbury’s by 12.1% from £1.65 to £1.85, by 10% from £1.50 to £1.65 in Asda, and by 5.7% from £1.75 to £1.85 in Waitrose, The Grocer’s KVI Tracker shows [Assosia 52 w/e 18 July 2024].
The price of the bar remained the same in Morrisons and Tesco, at £1.65 and £1.49 respectively.
While Aldi does not list the 110g Dairy Milk bar, it does stock the 95g version, which has stuck at £1.29.
A spokeswoman for Cadbury confirmed it had made price increases as “a last resort”. The brand was “continuing to experience significantly higher input costs”, with cocoa and sugar “costing far more than they have done previously”.
“As a result, we have had to make some carefully considered list price increases,” she said.
A Waitrose spokeswoman said the retailer was “working hard with our suppliers to keep prices down”.
Sainsbury’s and Aldi declined to comment, while Asda and Tesco had not responded to requests by the time of writing.
It comes after a short crop of cocoa from Ghana and Ivory Coast caused the price of the commodity to triple in the first quarter of the year.
As chocolate companies buy cocoa up to 12 months in advance of making and selling their products, further price increases are likely to be seen across the category over the coming months.
In fact, Cadbury’s rivals Lindt and Tony’s Chocolonely have this week confirmed they will be implementing price increases to mitigate the higher cost of cocoa.
Meanwhile, Mars Wrigley has shrunk its Celebrations tubs by 50g ahead of Christmas to mitigate the “rising costs of raw materials and operations”, as reported by The Grocer.
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