“It’s almost a chocolate bar”

I still think I can hear when the end of the year approaches that “this Christmas, chocolate nougat; This Christmas, Suchard nougat.” And there are things that, no matter how much the world changes, always persist in our customs. Because for lovers of chocolate nougat there is no other like Suchard’s.

Thanks to its unmatched flavorfor this product there was no economic crisis that could confront it nor a white label that could take away customers. There was no doubt: between Suchard’s chocolate nougat or any other, always Suchard, no matter what the cost. It was almost sacrilege to think otherwise.

However, in recent years, many consumers have expressed their discomfort at the significant price increase that this Christmas delicacy has suffered, which has almost doubled its cost. According to a recent study carried out by the Spanish company FITstore, in the last five years Its price has increased by 88%, while the quantity of product offered has been reduced by 11.5%, in a clear case of reduflation.

This practice consists of reduce the size or quantity of a product while maintaining or even raising its price. This procedure, however, is legal as long as the packaging informs about the new volume of product that is put on sale. In the case of Suchard, the new weight of the product is clearly reported on the packaging, which in 2023 went from 260 to 230 grams, which represents a reduction of up to 30 grams. Its price, on the other hand, has moved from the 2.99 euros it cost in 2020 to the current 4.99 euros.

Javier Cuervoprofessor of Business Administration at UNIE University, belonging to Planeta Formación y Universidades, explained to this medium that “the problem is that many buyers do not detect these changes immediately, since new sizes are not always clearly communicated in labeling” and that this lack of transparency causes “consumers to feel deceived.” “Reduction, if not adequately communicated, can erode the relationship between brands and consumers in the long term, damaging confidence in an already complicated economic context,” he warned.

“Reducing the weight to hide price increases has become a common resource, and it is no coincidence,” he explains. Luis CanadaCEO of FITstore. “With persistent inflation, more expensive raw materials and rising operating costs, Many manufacturers resort to redflation as a discreet formula to make their products more expensive. without raising the final price in an obvious way”.

Among the causes that Cañada exposes to explain the reduction in Suchard chocolate nougat, the most decisive is perhaps the increase in the price that cocoa has experienced in recent years as a result of crop shortages. Although in 2025 its cost has fallen by more than 50%, between the beginning of 2023 and the end of 2024, cocoa reached its historical maximum: it touched 12,565 dollars per ton on the New York Stock Exchange, thus shooting up prices by 380%.

The FITstore study has become popular on social networks, whose users have not been slow to comment on this matter. “How Suchard nougat has lost weight, it’s almost a chocolate bar”the account on X (formerly Twitter) has joked. I went to EGB by Javier Ikaz and Jorge Díaz. Other users, however, have been harsher. “Before I bought two tablets for the family; now I settle for one and it costs more,” says María. “Soon we are going to buy sliced ​​nougat, as if it were serrano ham”others ironically.

The Government will force companies to notify

As Elena Omedes reported, The Government plans to regulate redflation in the new Sustainable Consumption Law to “guarantee that consumers receive information about prices and quantities of the products offered for sale.”

To do this, the department headed by Pablo Bustinduy will force companies to warn “in a clear and understandable manner” when they reduce the quantity or number of units included in a package without lowering the price and maintaining the same design in its container or packaging.

Consumption will consider that the law has been complied with when it is indicated “in a legible and visible manner” that, in fact, there is a lower packaged quantity or fewer packaged products, as well as the price increase derived from that reduction. Companies will have a maximum period of 90 days from the first marketing to indicate the new characteristics of the marketed product.

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