The recession is still taking its toll on chocolate consumption. Second quarter reports from around the world indicate that cocoa grindings, a key indicator of chocolate production, continue to decline.
Emerging Markets Seem A Bit Reluctant
India and China are to the chocolate industry what emerging markets were to the financial speculators of the late 1990s. A promise of untold riches to any company that got its feet into the door. The new middle classes, so the theory went, are eager to adopt western tastes and, with it, chocolate. The dream of 100 million Indians eating Mars or Nestlé was a powerful lure.
