Chocolate sales are booming
Turnover is soaring for firms as a poll finds many French people are ‘addicted’ to it and would never give it up
CHOCOLATE sales are booming despite – or because of – the economic crisis.
As the annual Salon du Chocolat – a major industry event – sets up to open tomorrow, figures have shown that turnover in the chocolate business were up 9% last year, at €2.7 billion.
A survey by polling group CSA on “little pleasures” of life, found that chocolate was the food or drink product people were most attached to after coffee and 31% said that they would “certainly never give it up” despite budget restraints.
It also states that 14% of people in France think they are “addicted” to it and have some every day.
A CSA director, Olivier Dupuy, told newspaper “em>Direct Matin: “For these people it’s a kind of comfort blanket. Nearly half of people in France, and three-quarters of the ‘addicts’, say they eat it as a solution for depression.”
Each year 380,000 tonnes of chocolate are sold in France, with bars being the top sellers (119,000 tonnes), followed by “mouthful-sized” portions such as chocolate rochers (“rocks”). Children eat on average 4.3kg per year, adults 2kg.
Nutritionists say that while chocolate is fattening two or three pieces a day do no harm and may even be beneficial due to the mood-boosting effects.
Photo: _Stu Spivak/Wikimedia Commons
