DIVINE CHOCOLATE is not selling Easter eggs this year. The decision is expected to mean that the demand for Fairtrade chocolate eggs will outstrip the supply.

A spokesperson for Divine confirmed the news on Tuesday, in response to questions from the Church Times. The decision, the spokesperson said, was “purely guided by commercial and brand reasons, and taken post lengthy discussions with our suppliers”. The company said that it was “very much the intention that an Easter range will return for 2026”.

The director of the Meaningful Chocolate Company, David Marshall, warned that, because Divine was not producing eggs, there would be a shortage of Fairtrade Easter eggs. “As we were unaware of Divine’s decision to not to manufacture for Easter, we did not increase our output or range, so only have about 150,000 eggs available. It’s sad news for growers, who aren’t going to have so much demand.”

“It's Unfair Trade”

The cost of cocoa had quadrupled in recent years, Mr Marshall said, and this had put pressure on producers such as Divine Chocolate and the Meaningful Chocolate Company. Increased prices were mostly because of speculators who bought and sold the cocoa harvest, Mr Marshall said.

The Meaningful Chocolate Company was crowd-funded by churches and schools in 2010, when Mr Marshall had the idea of selling a chocolate egg that referred explicitly to the Easter story, branded as “The Real Easter Egg” (News, 1 October 2010).

“Divine pulling out of Easter means that people aren’t going to find as many Fairtrade Easter eggs on supermarket shelves, and they’ll need to do some more work to find them,” he said.

The Real Easter Egg has previously been available in supermarkets (News, 28 March 2013), but it is now sold online and through small retailers only. Mr Marshall explained that the decision was taken to withdraw from supermarkets because of the high discounts that they demanded.