There is still a month and a half until Christmas begins (unless you live in Vigo), but that has not prevented the shelves of supermarkets in half the country from starting to fill with boxes of Polvorones, panettonesalmonds, marzipan and (of course) nougat tablets. With them, however, something else has arrived: the shadow of the reduflationa phenomenon about which OCU and FACUA they have been for years warning and which basically consists of covering up price increases.
You go home believing that you have paid the same (or a little more) than last year when in reality, if you do the math, the kg/€ ratio is much higher. It is not a new practice or exclusive to Christmas, but is already giving something to talk about on account of one of the classics of the national holidays: Suchard’s nougat.
What has happened? that the platform Fitstore.es has done an interesting experiment that is generating intense debate. Basically, he has dedicated himself to analyzing the evolution of Suchard chocolate nougat bars between 2020 and 2025, which allowed him to detect two apparently opposing trends: we are paying much more money in exchange for much less product.
To be more precise, FITstore ensures that the tablet has gone from costing €2.99 in 2020 to the current €4.99almost 70% more. On some websites, such as Alcampocan be found for less, but that (€4.99) is the sale price in chains like Carrefour, Day either Eroski. The striking thing is that tablets do not weigh the same today as they did five years ago, when they were cheaper. In fact they have decreased.
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How have they decreased? According to the FITstore studioIn 2023, Suchard chocolate nougat bars went from weighing 260 grams to 230 g, 11.5% less. If you go to a supermarket (we have done the test in Vigo) that is probably the format you are going to find: 230 g tablets.
It is not a phenomenon that only the online sales platform has detected. Last year already warned of this ‘bailing’ the Facua association, which explained that although the price of Suchard nougat had not increased (€3.99) the €/kg ratio had gone from 15.35 to 17.35. That is, (sneakily) the product became 13% more expensive.
In some stores the tablet was even more expensive. In DAP They explained last year how Suchard nougat, which in 2023 cost €3.67 in Alcampo, had gone to €3.98. And this despite the fact that the product weighed 30 g less.
Is it an isolated case? No. Or it wasn’t, at least a year ago, when Facua published an extensive report in which he cited more cases of reduflation between Christmas sweets. Specifically, it spoke of about a dozen articles that applied “significant price increases” taking advantage of a change in design.
For example, Dulce Noel black crunchy nougat went from costing €1.85 in Dia stores in October 2023 to €1.99 a year later. An increase of 7.6% that actually hid an increase in prices of 43.4%. The reason? In addition to becoming 14 cents more expensive, the tablet had been reduced by 50 g, going from 200 to 150 g. More or less similar cases, with increases per kilo of up to 52%, could be found in other items from Nestlé, Lindt or the Dia white label.
What is the reason for the increase? The million dollar question. The rise in prices of chocolates and nougat can be explained in part by manufacturing costs: in the last year they have become more expensive the energyrents and ingredients such as rice, flour and the eggs. However, if there is a product that has seen its price skyrocket with a key impact on the candy industry, it is chocolate, mired in an international crisis which has directly influenced its price.
The CPI gives a good account of this. According to the last data published by the INE (corresponding to September), chocolate has skyrocketed by almost 16% during the last year. Cocoa has increased by 8.5%. These are high percentages, but they also show a relaxation compared to those recorded just a few months ago, when the year-on-year increase in chocolate exceeded 20%. The question remains to what extent cocoa fluctuations are now influencing nougat.
What do they say from the sector? At Xataka we have contacted Mondelez International to ask them about the changes in Suchard nougats and, more specifically, about their apparent reduflation. The multinational does not go into details, but remembers that it operates “in an increasingly complex and unstable environment” that forces it to make “adjustments” so as not to “compromise the taste and quality” of the product.
“As food manufacturers, we continue to face high costs throughout our supply chain, especially in key ingredients such as cocoa. This makes manufacturing our products significantly more expensive than in the past,” explains the company, which claims to do “everything possible to assume the extra costs.” “However, in such a complex environment, we sometimes have to make carefully considered adjustments to our Suchard range.”
The goal, they say, is “to continue offering consumers the chocolate nougat they love, without compromising the great flavor or quality they expect.” “For this reason, and despite the context, we have not altered our recipe, again in order to protect the quality and taste of this iconic Christmas product.”
Images | Vitaly Gariev (Unsplash) and Xataka
In Xataka | I have made homemade nougat and it is delicious. The problem is the price
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