Mars attacks as Galaxy shrinks

Published on Friday 11 September 2009 22:05

THE rising price of cocoa has forced Mars to reduce the size of its Galaxy bars by 17 per cent, less than a year after increasing the price by 26 per cent, it has been reported.

The regular Galaxy bar is being shrunk from 150g to 125g to avoid further price rises such as last November's, when the shelf price rose from 1 to 1.26, the magazine Grocer said.

Cocoa was suffering from supply issues caused by ageing crops in west Africa and by black pod disease, which rendered more than a third of each year's harvest unusable, the magazine said.

It quoted one unnamed industry expert as saying the rises in costs probably made the move justifiable – but added that it was a risky move when consumers were expecting falling prices.