The Great Finger Shortage of 2024: French consumers are (unsurprisingly) angry after the British chocolate biscuits vanish from supermarket shelves.
The French don’t like to admit it, but no one does chocolate treats like the British.
Consider the evidence: Maltesers; Bourbon biscuits; Terry’s Chocolate Orange; McVitie’s Penguin bars; everything Cadbury ever released.
Case closed.
Well, the French are currently dealing with quite the chocolatey quandary, one you may not be aware of: Cadbury Fingers have been impossible to find for several months now. And considering current events, now is not the time to be severing innocent bystanders from their coping mechanisms.
Consumers noticed that supplies had dried out, something which French outlets like Libération and Le Monde confirmed.
French TV channel BFM labelled it “La mystérieuse disparition des biscuits Finger” (“the mysterious disappearance of the Finger biscuits”). Le Parisien opted for “Un symbol de moments partagés et de plaisir” (“a symbol of shared and pleasurable moments”), while Libération went with: “Les Finger de Cadbury ont disparu des magasins en France et personne ne nous a rien dit” (“Cadbury’s Fingers have disappeared from French shops and no-one told us”) – adding that Cadbury Fingers are the “perfect link between fine Mikado and large Twix.”
Poets. And not wrong.
So what has happened to these chocolate life savers and how could they have mysteriously disappeared from supermarket shelves without a reasonable explanation?
Well, Mondelez International, the US multinational previously known as Kraft Foods which owns the English brand Canbury (as well as LU, Oreo and Milka), confirmed that the purple packaged biscuits are now une chose du passé.
The company, who is responsible for a third of biscuit sales in France, indicated that the lovely treats have not been available in France since Spring 2024. They reportedly attributed the halt of supplies to an “intermediary distributor”.
No further explanations given.
Harsh.
BFM got a hold of the Fingers’ intermediate distributor – Rennes-based Lightbody Europe – who stated that the loss of Fingers in France was the decision of the manufacturer. No mention of any possible return to French shelves.
C’est la guerre.
However, while French consumers and chocolate-deprived Finger lovers may despair, there’s one example that may bring hope: Figolu.
The sweet fig-filled biscuits were taken off the shelves by Mondelez for five years, between 2015 and 2020. Then, they reappeared following pressure from frustrated consumers… Albeit with a modified recipe and a higher price tag.
A petition is already underway for the return of the Finger biscuits – which is necessary since the recession has hit us all hard and not everyone can afford the online Finger inflation. Indeed, boxes that cost £1.80 (€2.18) in the UK are on sale to the French on Amazon for €54.99.
In this economy, I’ll be damned!
With no news on when the beloved Fingers will be reintroduced to the French market, one thing’s for sure: if they make Toblerone disappear, it won’t be guerre. It’ll be révolution.
Now. Is. Not. The. Time.
Additional sources • Le Monde, BFM, Libération
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