Chocolate sales were down 7% last Easter: here are the local chocolatiers we should support this year

A decline in gifting opportunities including at Easter and the fall-off in duty-free airport traffic, particularly tourists, have significantly impacted chocolate sales

Wexford sisters Karen and Natalie Keane came to chocolate making from the worlds of retail and HR and created the brand Bean and Goose.

There was an early casualty in the global pandemic that hasn’t been talked enough about – Easter eggs. While we were shopping more than ever at the start of Lockdown One last March and hoarding pasta and toilet paper to beat the band, one thing that wasn’t on the top of our shopping lists were Easter Eggs. Turns out if you can’t see all the chocolate lovers in your life the one thing you don’t need to stock up on are delicious eggs stuffed with sweets.

In the UK, despite there being a 9.1% surge in general grocery sales, the purchase of chocolate eggs and the associated Easter novelties slumped 10.4% to £305.3. And while that still sounds like a lot of money spent on eggs that amounts to a decline worth £35.5 million.