Candy Dish Blog

I found an article online last Thursday about Green & Black’s chocolate going to Fairtrade completely by the end of 2011. I was pretty impressed by the move and even added it to our Amplify feed. “Wow,” I thought. “Good for them.” Then I read further and saw a statistic that said the Fairtrade market has grown from £22 million in 1999 to £635 million last year. It’s a staggering growth for any business, especially when your stock and trade is helping small businesses. That’s apparently a very lucrative business to be in!

Personally, I think of Fairtrade products in the same light as organic products, since it is the same type of store that carries the most variety of each, at least in my area. However, organic products have taken a hit in the current economy while Fairtrade products are seeing growth in sales. I attribute this to the differing reasons people buy and don’t buy each.

People buy organic products for a rational reason: they have the perception of better nutrition and safety. We are talking perception here. They are also more expensive than the non-organic alternatives. And when you are buying produce, for example, and the organic apples are smaller than or identical to the non-organic alternative and you have less money in your pocket, it becomes easy to choose a non-organic product. In other words, the choice comes down to price.
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By 2008 numbers, the World Bank estimates that China has about 1.3 billion people, about 20% of the world’s population. That makes China the most populous country on the globe, closely followed by India. However, despite having 20% of the world’s population and a quickly growing economy, China is responsible for only two percent of world chocolate sales.

This number is growing, albeit slowly, and the disparity is quite striking. What could be the big barrier to chocolate imports in such a large country? Kris Eddy of The Motley Fool recently asked a related question and a commenter explained that one big barrier is that chocolate has been used in China for quite a while as a way to cover the bitter taste of various medicines, including cures for intestinal parasites. Talk about taste aversion.

Could this negative association be the whole story? I suspect that is a large part of it but that another aspect is China’s unique economy, which is growing yet very protected, with built-in barriers to foreign trade. In addition, as Slate’s Daniel Gross points out, chocolate is an expensive treat, possibly too sweet for the country’s palate and contains milk, which does not sit well in a country with a high level of lactose intolerance, as China has.

Right now China is up for grabs by the chocolate industry for whichever company wants to put in the marketing dollars to promote a treat that is not very popular. It’s a huge bite to chew on, and an expensive one, but potentially very lucrative. Another barrier is that China rid the country of most foreign influences a number of years ago and only really started to open up in the 1970’s, so there have been about 35 years to bring chocolate into the country and promote it.

India, on the other hand, seen as the other big, largely untapped market, has historic and commercial connections with England dating back to the early 1600’s. Although these times were not always peaceful and certainly wrought with turmoil especially toward the end of the colonial period, the end of the Raj saw a mutual agreement of friendship when India joined the Commonwealth in 1947. It makes sense that one or more British companies would dominate India’s chocolate market simply based on this 400-year-old connection.

But China is problematic. Without a natural taste for the treat and without historic trade connections, it is almost a blank slate of opportunity but bordered by strong barriers on all sides. Are the barriers too much for  chocolate makers to overcome? I suspect a balance will be found. China will likely not readily embrace chocolate the way we have in the U.S. but chocolate manufacturers may find some inroads by marketing it as a luxury item for wealthy consumers and others who appreciate the finer things in life.

The future of the industry in China is uncertain, but one thing is for sure. Mastering the art of chocolate in China might be like breaking the roughest horse in the corral and the company that figures out the secret to this will likely profit handsomely from the payoff. If you can ride him, he’s yours. Now who is going to be the first to step up?

Map of China by GGuillaume.

My friend Leroy sent me a link to an NPR article about the role of bacon in desserts. We have all heard of Pig Candy, seen and maybe even tried chocolate-covered bacon, and maybe even made our own candied bacon in the secrecy of our homes, clandestinely, before revealing the truth and wonder to our friends.

Well, I haven’t. I am the office vegetarian, so I am the one who drools when my officemates like Tori and Susan nibble away at choco-cocoa-yummy piggy bits and extol the beauty and goodness of these pig-o-licious combination. I try to be holier-than-thou, morally superior and aloof, but it’s all a ruse. The flesh may be strong but the spirit is weak. I want to try it too. Underneath this strong, rugged exterior I am a sinner at heart.

So I cannot try these recipes myself, but the NPR article has some really good-looking recipes. Please, people, try some of these at home and let me know what I am missing.

Leroy indicated that perhaps there’s more to the story. Does the bacon addition hurt confectionery? The simple answer is no. It may hurt for one batch of cookies, where you use bacon instead of chocolate chips, but then when you cover bacon with chocolate, you have already made up the difference. And honestly, you will not substitute bacon for chocolate in many cases. It just won’t happen.

I think there’s enough room at the table for candy and bacon. It was a fad in the last couple years to pair bacon and sweet stuff, especially chocolate. The sweet-salty and sweet-savory combinations opened up a whole new world to the confectionery industry. Now you can get cocoa spice rubs for meats, chocolate-covered meat and salty chocolate caramels. A few years back, these were almost unheard of, being strictly gourmet items. Now they are available to the general public.

In the end, confectionery wins in the bacon dessert mix. Bacon is still a novelty, even a fad. However, we may see bacon stand the test of time and someday look back on the late 2000’s as a time of creative bacony genius. It all may peter out. On the other hand, it may become a classic.

Chocolate Bacon by chipandandy.

As you pass out treats to children in the U.S. who dress as ghosts and goblins on Halloween night you might be interested to know that cocoa farmers are finding ways to increase their incomes and provide better lives for their children.

Late last week Nestle, among the largest purchasers of cocoa beans in the world with operations in 32 countries, announced a  “Cocoa Plan” to help improve cocoa farmer profitability and cocoa bean quality.  The plan includes  providing farmers with better varieties of cocoa  trees, farmer education to help farmers become more profitable and buying co-ops to provide farmer services and allow group (more profitable) pricing for farmers.  Nestle will invest $109 million in these  ”sustainability initiatives” for the cocoa sector in the next decade.

To quote Nestle’s excellent new website on The Cocoa Plan, “Without farmers, there’d be no cocoa.  Without cocoa, there’d be no chocolate.  Cocoa farmers are the vital start-point and they can benefit considerably from our help.”

Nestle joins a growing list of companies making substantial commitments to cocoa farming.  Mars has announced that the company has pledged to purchase 100,000 tons of sustainably grown certified cocoa by 2020.  We did an earlier blog on Cadbury’s Fair Trade chocolate initiative in the U.K. where all Cadbury milk chocolate bars will be certified Fair Trade, increasing the amount of Fair Trade chocolate sold in the U.K. by 25 percent over 2008.

The World Cocoa Foundation last week announced the launch of its Cocoa Livelihoods program in Ghana.  The program, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and 12 chocolate companies, is expected to improve the livelihoods of nearly 60,000 farmers in Ghana over the next 5 years.  “Making real progress against hunger and poverty starts with small farmers,” explains Richard Rogers of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The goals of these initiatives are similar; they work to ensure that cocoa farm families have greater opportunities for economic development.  Along the way they encourage access to quality education for children and adults.  It’s a good goal for children of cocoa farmers, farmers themselves, the cocoa companies and consumers of chocolate everywhere.

Cocoa Beans by Nestlé.

Many thanks to loyal reader Kristin, whom you can see in the picture at right, hiding behind the candy fortress and my coffee cup, for sending me an article about the world’s top ten best selling candies. It’s really a very interesting analysis about the global confectionery market and finishes with the list. When Kristin isn’t busy finding content for this blog, which is really my responsibility, I recruit her to help feed and hose down the oompa loompas and oil Jonny’s roller skates from time to time. She has her own duties too, like basically keeping the office running. We couldn’t do anything without her here.

The top ten is interesting in itself, but go read the article for more information.

1. M&Ms – Mars – USA
2. Cadbury’s Dairy Milk – Cadbury – UK
3. Milka – Kraft – Germany
4. Trident – Cadbury – Brazil
5. Meiji – Meiji Seika Kaisha – Japan
6. Orbit – Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. – Russia
7. Trident – Cadbury – Mexico
8. Hollywood – Cadbury – France
9. Vivident – Perfetti Van Melle – Italy
10. Hsu Fu Chi – Hsu Fu Chi International – China

Thanks, Kristin, for this article. The whole office appreciates your hard work. You are a true gem in our office of gem-colored candies.

Does this surprise you? What would you have guessed was the world’s top selling candy?

Fortune Magazine recently released a list of the most admired companies. The survey asked businesspeople to vote for companies they admired most from any industry. Nestlé, the Swiss company widely known for its chocolate, snacks, instant beverages and many other products, ranked number 38 on the list. Among consumer food product companies, it ranked number one. Kraft Foods, makers of Toblerone and Milka Chocoloates, ranked number seven and Cadbury plc ranked number eight.

That’s a whole bunch of candy companies in the top ten consumer food products category. Way to go!

Funny – just last night I rediscovered some chocolate Nestlé Quik I had apparently stashed in the cupboard, hidden apparently for some sort of chocolate drink emergency. It was exactly what I wanted even though I thought I was looking for something else. Funny how that happens. Do you have a favorite Nestlé product?

Nestlé Quik by Roadsidepictures.

Denise Ryan of Raleigh, NC has an interesting series about decision-making, over stimulation and the paralysis of analysis. In part one of the series she talks about the downside of too many varieties to choose from:

Here’s how it works – imagine you are at some fancy, schmancy food fair and there is a table selling fancy, schmancy jams (or whatever the hell it is). One table has six different types of jam; one has 24 different types. Which table sells more jam? (No, this is not the SAT).

The one with 6! 30% of people buy there, only 3% buy at the table with 24!! 27% more people buy at the table with fewer choices! This is huge!!

She goes on to relate a story from her own experience – of being overwhelmed by a whole wall of candy bars to choose from when really all she wanted was something sweet. Too many choices kept her from making a quick decision and being on her way.

Part two gives a handy primer on how to avoid choice overload and how to deal with it when it does happen.

I found these two pieces good lessons for my own business education and hope you will too. Denise has some pretty good information there so I hope you will check it out. The best part is that everything she talks about relates back to chocolate somehow. If that’s not magic, I don’t know what is. Anyone who can tie brain functions to chocolate is tops in my book!

Chocolate Slabs by Ayres no graces