Chocolate coated critters and whitebait choccie fritters? Erm…? Easter’s shaping up to no longer being the domain of the Easter Bunny …or of chocolate made with ‘invert sugar syrup’ and E-numbers. YouTuber Mr Beast (yep, the one who recreated Squid Game) has everyone covered with his 100% plant-based chocolate made after deciding that ‘Boomer chocolate ingredient lists are low-key trash’. Billie Eilish’s taken a more subtle approach to marketing with her planet-friendly choccie, made with rice powder and a splash of chocolate liquor to help make you Happier Than Ever. With Kinder’s latest chocolate surprise, we’ll take that! 🤢

But salmonella recalls are not looking like a threat to the industry, which last year saw sales of candy and chocolate hitting new sugar highs of almost US$37 billion, an annual jump of 11%. In even sweeter news, chocolate sales have shown to be quite the delight during a recession. 😋 According to BNP Paribas Wealth Management that’s because when crisis hit, our spending often switches to life’s more simple pleasures. Instead of fast cars and new smartphones with bells and whistles, we fill the recession void with booze ‘n’ chocolates. During the great recession of 2008 to 2009, sales of chocolate in the US increased by 3%, in line with the net sales growth seen by Hershey (HSY). 🍫

So what’s the kicker this year? The Easter bunny can’t out-hop inflation. The cost of transporting packaging to the Easter Bunny’s workshop is bouncing up, which means we will likely be getting a little less of the sweet stuff this Easter as shrinkflation foils our plans. First it was our toilet-paper and Doritos, and now Easter essential Cadbury, owned by Mondelez International (MDLZ), has said they’ll be reducing the size of their sharing bars by 10% while keeping the price the same. Wait, they were for sharing? 😳