Expensive Easter eggs and smaller sweets: 'chocolate meltdown' fears grow

The poor cacao harvest has left chocolate producers scrambling to secure their supply, with many warning of more price rises and potential reductions in the size of bars and sweets. 

Around the world this weekend, people will consume hundreds of millions of Easter eggs and bunnies, as part of an annual chocolate intake that can exceed 5kg for every person in Europe. 

But a global shortage of cacao — the seed from which chocolate is made — has brought warnings of a “chocolate meltdown” that could see prices increase and bars shrink further.