French chocolate maker Valrhona is launching two new milk chocolate blends in the Middle East, as it counts on high service levels and exclusivity to maintain growth.
Multinational chocolate manufacturers are failing to cater to Indian tastes and should experiment with spices such as green cumin and saffron, according to India’s only professional chocolate taster.
At a time when lunch portions are growing, sweet tooths of a certain age across the antipodes can be heard lamenting how just the opposite has been happening with their favourite confectionery. However, one Nestlé line has turned the trend of shrinking...
Special Edition: Cutting calories in confectionery
Cocoa powder demand for use in compound confectionery coatings is rising rapidly in Asia and Eastern Europe as rising cocoa butter prices up the cost of chocolate manufacturing.
Chocolate makers are circling the rural Indian market as it is where the majority of consumers reside and infrastructure and incomes have improved drastically, says an analyst at ValueNotes.
Rajhans (Desai-Jain) Group has made its first foray into the confectionery industry by launching its Schmitten brand in India and it is hoping to become the domestic market leader in premium chocolate.
Largely due to Cadbury’s marketing nous, India’s chocolate market has changed dramatically since the ‘Nineties, with consumers eating more and different varieties, a new report has highlighted.
Nestlé has extended its partnership with expansion services firm DKSH to bring confectionery brands such as Kit Kat, Milo Confectionery and Uncle Toby’s to traditional trade channels in Singapore.
Asia Pacific will leapfrog North America in 2014 retail value confectionery sales to become the world’s second largest market, according to Euromonitor International.
Swiss business developer and Indonesian government signs Cargill Cocoa Promise, just as the firm announces initial cocoa processing tests at its first Asian plant in East Java.
Cargill says that chocolate manufacturers can now make the switch from soy lecithin to the “more sustainable” sunflower lecithin after Japan became the last country to approve the emulsifier.
Mondelēz International has upped the cocoa content and revamped the packaging of its Cadbury Bournville brand in India to appeal to the growing middle classes.
Hershey Netherlands B.V. has signed an agreement to acquire an 80% stake in Chinese confectionery and snack firm Shanghai Golden Monkey Food Company (SGM) - and the remaining 20% in 2015.
Lindt, Ferrero and artisanal chocolatiers could be set to profit from thriving demand for premium chocolate in Australia, market analysts Leatherhead Food Research say.
Hershey has committed to purchasing 100% traceable and sustainably-sourced palm oil by the end of 2014. Greenpeace has welcomed the move, but has reservations about timelines and terminology.
Waste shells from cocoa processing are rich in fibre and antioxidants and carry great potential as food ingredients, according to Australian plantation-to-bar manufacturer Daintree Estates.
The company behind Australia’s first single origin chocolate says the country’s cocoa is rich in polyphenols and is set for a big future. Its executive chairman, Cadbury veteran Barry Kitchen talks to ConfectioneryNews.
North America’s third quarter cocoa grind is the highest of any quarter since the National Confectioners Association began to collaborate data for the US, Mexico and Canada in 2009. The Asian Q3 cocoa grind has also jumped 12%.
The Hershey Company will make its single largest investment in Asia with a new factory in Malaysia, a country the firm says gives it a strong route to 25 markets in the region, including China.
Natra Cocoa and Chocolate has reported flat sales in its first half results due to weak consumer spending in Europe and a blip in chocolate consumption in its growth driver Asia.
Singapore-based Petra Foods has reported first quarter profit gains in its branded consumer division driven by rising chocolate consumption in markets such as Indonesia and the Philippines and improved margins by introducing more premium products.
Consumers in New Zealand are spending more on healthier and ethical chocolate variants - a move that has aided growth in the burgeoning sector, an analyst says.
Mondelez International’s Cadbury India has introduced a two-week promotion on Toblerone in most modern retailers in a bid to grow the premium chocolate category.
Oxfam has called on the three biggest chocolate manufacturers to conduct independent audits on conditions for women on cocoa farms supplying their factories after finding evidence of unequal pay, discrimination and hunger.
Singapore-based Petra Foods has posted sales and profit declines in the third quarter (Q3) as it complained of weak global demand for chocolate that halved profits in its cocoa ingredients division.
Asia’s cocoa grind for the third quarter has remained essentially flat compared to last year after growth in the previous two quarters, figures released yesterday show.
Cocoa compounds found in dark chocolate can reduce blood pressure in the short term and could help guard against cardiovascular disease, according to a recently released study.
Cadbury parent company Kraft Foods has responded to allegations from a Chinese newspaper that a piece of Choclairs from a Beijing supermarket contained a worm.
Leading cocoa manufacturer Barry Callebaut and exporter, P.T. Comextra Majora have teamed up on a new processing facility to satisfy the growing demand for cocoa products in the Asia Pacific region.
Foreign firms are the biggest players in a rapidly growing chocolate confectionery market in China – but a fragmented market means there are opportunities for smaller companies, according to a new report from Datamonitor.
Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) has announced that it will expand its cocoa processing capabilities at its facility in Singapore to enable it to keep pace with growing demand for cocoa and chocolate products from Asian markets.
Indonesia is the focus of an extension of Nestlé’s sustainable Cocoa Plan initiative, with the Swiss food group aiming to pump $4m (€2.7m) into bean production in that country.
US chocolate giant Hershey reported net income of $130.12m for the second quarter, with net income for the period up o $129.56m from $117.05m in the same quarter in 2010.
Ingredients giant Barry Callebaut has confirmed its positive midterm outlook after posting a 7.3 per cent rise in sales volumes over the first nine months of the fiscal year.
An explosion in Fairtrade chocolate sales last year in Australia has seen it overtake coffee to become the biggest selling Fairtrade certified product in that market, said the organisation behind the standard.
The first 100 per cent single source chocolate from Vietnam is being launched by Belgian B2B producer, Grand-Place, who in a bid to increase output is investing heavily in improving the quality of the cocoa beans from the region.
The Indian confectionery market witnessed the launch of over 200 products in various categories last year, thus ranked, according to Datamonitor, in the top 20 in terms of global new product launches in 2009.
