Chocolate spread Nutella’s price has gone up despite slump in cost of hazelnuts

CHOCOLATE spread Nutella has put its prices up – even though the cost of hazelnuts has slumped in the past year.

And it is set to send fans of the treat nuts as it follows a controversial change to its recipe which attracted a backlash from some consumers recently.

Morrisons became the last of the ‘Big Four’ supermarket chains to put the price up this week, raising it by 22p to take a 1kg above a fiver to £5.20. Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda had already made similar moves.

But it comes not only after the recipe change but after industry data shows the key ingredient – hazelnuts -is considerably cheaper now than they were a year ago.

According to trade journal The Grocer, hazelnuts were trading on the international market at £7.50 to £7.70 a kilo in November 2016 but better harvests mean they are now trading for around £4.90 a kg.

Nutella’s parent company, Ferrero, said it had raised prices to cover increased costs elsewhere which affect all its brands – not just Nutella.

It told The Grocer it was facing ‘a variety of input pressures’ across its portfolio with a spokesman adding: “We are addressing these challenges with our retail partners.”

Increases may vary between the main chains but all are now passing on the increases to consumers.

Sainsbury’s, Asda and Tesco have put up the price of a 200g jar from £1.50 to £1.60 and a 400g jar from £2.50 to £2.70 and the 1kg jar in the three chains is now slightly higher than Morrisons at £5.30 from £5.00.

Last week, consumer watchdogs in Germany claimed the new recipe was higher in sugar, which Nutella denies claiming they had simply substituted whey powder for milk powder to ‘improve quality.’