Food products Swiss chocolate industry stagnates in 2024
The volume of Swiss chocolate sold stagnated in 2024. Although the domestic market developed well, the important export market barely budged. And the outlook is also rather uncertain.
08.04.2025, 11:47
SDA
The domestic sales volume rose by 1.7% to a good 209,000 tons in 2024. However, the much larger export market (71.2% share) more or less stagnated with a meagre increase of just 0.2%. This is a warning sign for the industry, writes the Chocosuisse association in a press release on Tuesday.
Due to the massive increase in the price of cocoa, which almost quadrupled last year, the industry is under high cost pressure and has had to implement the first price increases. This is also the reason for the massive increase in turnover of 13.3 percent to 2.2 billion Swiss francs.
At the same time, per capita consumption in Switzerland fell by 2.4 percent to 10.6 kilos. Nevertheless, Mr. and Mrs. Swiss remained loyal to domestic chocolate - consumption remained stable at 6.3 kilos (+0.1%), while consumption of imported products fell by 4.0% to 4.3 kilos. Nevertheless, the proportion of imports remains high at around 40%, according to the association.
The outlook for the future remains correspondingly cautious. As many chocolate producers still had cheaper cocoa in stock in 2024, the high cocoa price will probably not reach the stores until later in the year. And then the question arises as to how consumers will react to price increases.
Decline in sugar and long-life baked goods
Meanwhile, manufacturers of sugar and long-life baked goods can look back on another difficult year. Sales of sugar confectionery fell by 3.2 percent. The industry has a high export share (87.6%), with the USA being the most important market with a share of 35.7%.
The total sales volume of long-life baked goods fell by 1.5%, which was solely due to the sharp decline in exports (-9.8%), according to the Biscosuisse association.
