If you like to celebrate Christmas with nougat, bad news: this year you will have to dig deeper into your pocket. Quite a bit more, in fact. It doesn’t matter if you prefer soft or hard bars, you love chocolate, you have a favorite manufacturer or you don’t mind trying the white label of your supermarket. You will almost certainly have to pay more. This is concluded by several studies by Facua and the OCU, which show that Christmas sweets are not immune to the ups and downs of the market.
Although it is not the general trend, in their reports they warn of some specific cases in which prices have soared above 50%, threatening to sour one of the great pleasures of the holidays.
The sweet, less sweet. There is no Christmas without nougat, but this year it will be much more expensive to bring it to the table. This is clearly reflected in a recent OCU report that warns that, on average, the classic almond nougat has become 16% more expensive. To be more precise, the organization detected an increase of 15.8% in the Price of hard tablets and 16.1% in soft tablets.
The variants that dispense with added sugars also increased (although to a lesser extent), in which honey or sugar is replaced by sweeteners: in those cases the price has increased, although somewhat less, by 13.6%.
A figure: €23/kg. The calculations are based on a study by the OCU, which has dedicated itself to analyzing the price of more than a hundred nougats. The study focused specifically on the most classic varieties, the almonds, both Alicante (hard) and Jijona (soft). Then their technicians dedicated themselves to purchasing the prices of each tablet with the records they stored from 2024.
With the new prices, a kilo of nougat is on average €23/kg, although if we talk about “branded nougat” that indicator rises to €33/kg.
Same photo, different details. Although the report shows a general increase in price, the rise has not been equally intense in all tablets. It influences (a lot) what brand we talk about. The best ones are white label nougat, those sold under the distributor’s labels.
In that case the increase has been close to 9.4%. It is a considerable increase, but it pales when compared to the 24.3% increase in the average price of manufacturer brand nougat. Within this category, notable differences are also seen depending on the company and product.
Can it go further? Yes. According to the OCU, the nougats from El Almendro’s “Own Harvest” line cost 37% more than in 2024. However, the prize goes to El Lobo, which has products in its catalog that today cost 57% more. The organization recognizes in any case that this percentage has an explanation: in its 2024 analysis it appeared as the cheapest, which explains why it has experienced such a pronounced price update.
“These increases have turned the price of traditional branded nougat into a luxury item. The manufacturer’s nougat now costs €33/kg on average, compared to €15/kg for supermarket white label nougat,” the consumer organization explains. The average value of almond nougat is around €23/kg.
Far beyond nougat. The OCU has not been the only one that has taken out the calculator to study how much more we will have to pay for sweets these holidays. FACUA has carried out a similar exercise, which in November already warned that Christmas desserts had become 15.4% more expensive in large distribution chains. That was at least the average, and the organization was able to detect specific cases with exorbitant “peaks of rise”, of up to 65.3%.
The study analyzed 185 items, which included nougat, but also chocolates, mantecados and Polvorones available in several supermarket chains, such as Mercadona, Dia, Hipercor, Alcampo, Eroski and Carrefour.
“Only three have gone down”. “Of the total prices analyzed in the months of October 2024 and 2025, only three have decreased compared to last year and eight remain the same. The rest, 174 out of 185, are more expensive,” warns FACUA, which warns of increases in Hipercor, Alcampo, Carrefour, Eroski, Dia and Mercadona.
The clearest case was detected in a Supreme Quality toasted yolk nougat El Corte Inglés Selection from Hipercor: from 2.39 euros in 2024 it went to 3.95 euros, which represents an increase of just over 65%. In general, the organization detected an average increase in the price of sweets of 22.6% since October 2023.
Searching for the causes. That nougat is experiencing such a steep price rise is no coincidence. Although there are several factors that come into play, for the OCU and CaixaBank there is one that stands out: the drift in the price of one of their main raw materials, almonds. In fact, the OCU recalls that in higher category tablets it represents more than 60% of the weight, which explains why fluctuations in its price are felt in the rates.
Has it risen that much? “Their price has increased significantly: from 90-95 euros per 100 kg of shelled almonds between January and August 2024 to around 120 euros in 2025, with peaks of 138 euros in June,” argues the organization, which ensures that varieties such as Marcona, Largueta and Comuna have seen their prices rise from 15 to 25%. It is no surprise if we take into account that almonds have reached values not seen since 2019.
CaixaBank recalls that frosts and droughts have marked the harvest of recent campaigns, affecting prices. If in the 2024-2025 season farmers received an average of 5.6 euros per kilo of communal almonds (the cheapest), in previous seasons that same value hovered around 4.09 or 2.95 euros per kilo. The change in weather conditions has improved the prospects for the campaign that began in September, but this effect has not yet been noticeable in the 2025/26 Christmas nougat campaign.
Almonds… and something else. To be fair, almonds are not the only ingredient that has become more expensive in the last year. The egg has also done the same (and not a little), another prominent element in the nougat recipe and which has seen its price rise due to the demand and influence of the avian flu.
The latest data from the INE on prices show that in recent years eggs have become more expensive by 30.2%, well above the 3% of the general index. The same table still reflects the increase in costs of another ingredient used in the production of nougat: chocolate. Over the last year it rose 14.5% and its powder and cocoa variety rose 12.4%. The ICCO expects an improvement in the 2025-2026 campaign and the World Bank appreciates a moderation in prices and is confident of a fall in 2026, although (again) it has not arrived in time for Christmas.
Is there anything else? There are those who believe so. In November, Rubén Sánchez, from Facua, published an interesting analysis in which he questioned whether the sharp increase in the price of some Christmas sweets can be explained solely by the rise in the price of almonds or the rising price of eggs.
“In these five years everything has gone up, especially the ingredients, the raw materials. Also, obviously, transportation has gone up a lot, gas, electricity, electricity…”, Primitivo Rovira, a nougat maker from Xixona, acknowledges to laSexta. Only sugar seems to give a slight respite to traditional tablet manufacturers: according to the latest data released by the INE, this year it has become 7.5% cheaper.
Images | Unsplashed Tetian, Pixabay and Lablascovegmenu (Flickr)
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