Early Easter saw Irish shoppers splurge an extra €9m on chocolate eggs in March this year

Easter egg sales in March were up a massive €9.3m versus last year., according to new grocery numbers from data service Kantar. However, Easter fell on April 10 in 2023 versus March 31 this year, making month-on-month comparisons tricky.

Strikingly, the new data shows that more than half the Easter eggs bought this year were on some kind of promotion, despite high prices for cocoa on international markets.

Today's News in 90 seconds - 2nd April 2024

Supermarket chains’ premium own label ranges performed particularly well with shoppers spending an additional €172m on these lines.

Meanwhile, grocery sales generally were up 4.5pc in the the four weeks to 17 March 2024, with €1.1bn running through the tills. Much of that increase reflected high prices rather than additional demand, however.

Grocery inflation rose by 3.7pc in the 12 weeks to 17 March 2024, which is down a significant 16pc versus March 2023 but even though cost rises have moderated it still means shoppers’ euros are not stretching anywhere near as far as they were at the start of 2023.

Emer Healy, Business Development Director at Kantar, comments: “This is the eleventh month in a row that there’s been a drop in inflation, which will be very welcome news for consumers. While it’s the lowest inflation level we have seen for two years, shoppers in Ireland are still on the hunt for value with over 25pc of value sales coming from promotions.”

Among the main supermarkets Dunnes held a 24pc market share, pulling ahead of next ranked

Tesco (22.8pc) and SuperValu (20.4pc). Among the discount outlets Lidl is ahead, with a 13.5pc market share compared to Aldi’s 11.5pc.