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Photo: DPA

Germans 'can't eat any more chocolate'

Published: 14 Mar 13 15:59 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20130314-48539.html

Each German eats nearly 32 kilos of chocolate and sweets per year - so much that sales have peaked, leaving the domestic industry searching for growth markets abroad, it admitted on Thursday.

"The sweets business is not exactly a cakewalk at the moment," said Dietmar Kendziur, president of the German confectionary industry association.

"We would be happy if 2013 turned out like 2012," he added. Last year the industry saw a 0.3 percent drop in turnover to €12.47 billion.

The German market is considered to be saturated, unable to take any more chocolate, sweets or biscuits - not even a wafer thin mint.

This left manufacturers looking to foreign markets for growth - in 2000 just a fifth of products were sold abroad while now that share is nearly half. But foreign markets seem to be losing their sweet tooth for German confectionary, and last year's 1.68 million tonnes exported was four percent down on the previous year.

It is not as if Germans have suddenly turned to healthy alternatives from chocolate and sweets - they are reaching for more crisps and other salty snacks instead, Kendziur said. He blamed the European football championship for this development.

DPA/The Local/hc

What do you think? Leave your comment below.


Your comments about this article:

00:20 March 15, 2013 by smart2012
In few words: chocolate consumption in Germany declined in 2012. Is it maybe due to the crisis?
12:32 March 15, 2013 by Big L
Now I know why Germans are such sweet people!
23:41 March 16, 2013 by blackboot11
Always LOVED Ritter Sport Knusperflakes !!!! "Quadratisch. Praktisch. Gut"
19:42 March 26, 2013 by protno
Ritter Kakao-Mousse Rules! Don't touch them, they're all mine!
19:29 March 28, 2013 by RosieRosebud
I am not able to easily find good German chocolate in my state. I wish that the were many more chocolate options available at Trader Joes or even Aldis. I can find some European sweets at Target, sometimes. I can find German sprouted breads at the large grocery store. O h, how I wish we had an entire store devoted to European sweets of all kinds.
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