CHOC SHOCK
Chocolate and coffee giant Nestle confirms huge price hikes of supermarket favourites
Find out why the popular brand has introduced price hikes for customers
KITKAT and Nespresso maker Nestle has revealed it's hiked the cost of its coffee and chocolate for customers.
The Swiss company said it's raised its prices by 2.1% overall - but for some items the hikes are in the double digits.
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It blamed surging costs of coffee beans and chocolate.
"Despite the significant level of the increases in many markets, the actions were implemented with limited customer disruption," Nestle said.
Nestle produces a range of products, including chocolates, sweets, cereals, drinks, ice cream and pet foods.
Among its popular brands are Aero, Milkybar, Smarties, Nesquik, Milo, Haagen Dazs, San Pellegrino, and Felix cat food.
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The company said it had better-than-expected sales growth of 2.8% in the first three months of the year.
The higher prices accounted for much of the rise.
Nestle said it had seen demand drop significantly following the price increases but it is now bouncing back.
It also warned there could be further impacts on customers due to higher global tariffs.
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US President Donald Trump recently launched a global trade war when he announced major tariffs on dozens of countries.
The move has raised fears of a global recession, sent stock markets tumbling and caused economic uncertainty for businesses trading internationally.
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Mr Trump has called on American companies to produce their products in the US to avoid costly tariffs.
But for chocolate makers this is near impossible as the key ingredient, cocoa, can only be grown in tropical climates.
On top of this, the price of cocoa has soared in recent years.
Farmers in West Africa, where 70% of the world's cocoa is harvested, have been struggling with climate-related issues that have decimated their cocoa production.
It's estimated 400,000 tons less of cocoa has been produced over the last few years, hiking the price significantly.
Over the last few decades, cocoa had cost around $2,000 a ton.
Last year it peaked at more than $12,000.
Nestle is not the only chocolate maker to have been forced to hike its prices as a result.
America's biggest chocolate producer, Hershey, last year raised the prices of its products.
It then saw falling customer demand and had its worst profit in seven years in 2024.
Swiss brand Lindt also said last month it would need to increase its prices by double digit percentages to offset the high cocoa prices.
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It had already hiked its prices by 6.3% in 2024.
Chief financial officer Martin Hug said at the time: "Chocolate in the future will be more expensive than it has been two or three years ago. That's not just Lindt chocolate, that's chocolate in general."
How to save money on chocolate
We all love a bit of chocolate from now and then, but you don't have to break the bank buying your favourite bar.
Consumer reporter Sam Walker reveals how to cut costs...
Go own brand - if you're not too fussed about flavour and just want to supplant your chocolate cravings, you'll save by going for the supermarket's own brand bars.
Shop around - if you've spotted your favourite variety at the supermarket, make sure you check if it's cheaper elsewhere.
Websites like Trolley.co.uk let you compare prices on products across all the major chains to see if you're getting the best deal.
Look out for yellow stickers - supermarket staff put yellow, and sometimes orange and red, stickers on to products to show they've been reduced.
They usually do this if the product is coming to the end of its best-before date or the packaging is slightly damaged.
Buy bigger bars - most of the time, but not always, chocolate is cheaper per 100g the larger the bar.
So if you've got the appetite, and you were going to buy a hefty amount of chocolate anyway, you might as well go bigger.
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