Nourishment
Crisis-resistant: Almost 10 kilos of chocolate per capita nibbled
A confectioner “makes up” an Easter egg shape in the Chocolaterie Amelie in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. photo
© Angelika Warmuth/dpa
If chocolate is a sin, the majority of people do not seem to feel any deep remorse: Despite all the debates about healthy food, consumption in Germany is unaffected.
Chocolate is obviously crisis-resistant: German manufacturers increased their production last year by 1.7 percent to 1.2 million tons, despite inflation and a slowdown in the economy, according to the Confectionery Industry Association in Bonn. Per capita consumption in Germany is estimated to have risen slightly to 9.56 kilograms. For the forthcoming Easter, every inhabitant of the Federal Republic could mathematically eat more than one chocolate bunny: the industry has produced 108 million chocolate bunnies for domestic sales.
The confectionery industry is not exempt from inflation either: This can be seen, among other things, from the fact that the value of chocolate products made in Germany has risen faster than production, by 4.5 percent to around 6.2 billion euros. Exports, in particular, grew strongly.
Fluid definition of “chocolate goods”
The long-standing debate about healthy foods has obviously not affected the chocolate appetite in Germany. For comparison: At the beginning of the 1980s, the association had estimated the per capita consumption in the old Federal Republic of Germany to be considerably lower and put it at 6.5 kilograms. However, the comparison should be treated with caution, according to a BDSI spokeswoman, the definition of “chocolate goods” has presumably changed in recent decades.
According to the BDSI, the most popular flavor is still milk chocolate by a wide margin, even though more manufacturers have now launched dark chocolate with a high cocoa content. The range of vegan variants and so-called origin chocolate, for example with cocoa from Ecuador and Peru, has also increased.
Supply chains more stable again
Last year, the confectionery industry also suffered from major delivery problems at times, for example chocolate Santa Clauses were largely sold out in some Munich supermarkets before Christmas. “The supply chain problem has improved again since the beginning of 2023,” said the spokeswoman. However, like other branches of industry, the sector is suffering from the rise in the price of energy and raw materials.
According to the association, in 2022 the more than 200 companies in the German confectionery industry experienced a “spiral of cost increases and sometimes massive problems and failures in international supply chains unprecedented since the Second World War”.