Chocolate is crisis-resistant – and has a future
Chocolate always works. If you have been diligent as a reward. When you are doing well as a pleasure multiplier. When things go bad as a comforter. When you are under stress as a sedative. When you feel dull as a stimulant. An all-rounder – something that consumers value and that go straight for chocolate, as a glance at the sweet market shows.
The per capita sales of chocolate products in Germany alone amounted to 5.7 kilos in 2019. An increase to 6.3 kilos is forecast by 2025. This despite the fact that five years ago it was said that the European chocolate market was saturated. At that time, annual sales across the EU stagnated at just over four billion kilograms – which corresponds to around 40 billion bars.
Indestructible spirit of innovation
The hype about hand-scooped bars with sometimes exotic taste creations continues. This is due not least to an equally unshakable to indestructible spirit of innovation. One of the most creative minds in the industry works in Erfurt. Over the past 16 years, Alex Kühn has built up and expanded his eight-square-meter one-man show in a small shop on the Erfurt Krämerbrücke into a small pleasure empire with supraregional charisma. He now supplies more than 300 dealers across Germany and is knocking on the Austrian market with increasing vehemence.
Sustainability & highest quality
The Dutch brand Original Beans pursues the same concept – personal relationship with the producers, direct delivery routes and long-term contracts that are well above the market price, away from global market fluctuations. It’s a radically sustainable approach that spans from cultivation and harvest to processing and distribution. The customers come in equal parts from retail and gastronomy. The list of prominent brand ambassadors is long, ranging from Peter Gordon and Jamie Oliver to Thomas Scheiblhofer and Juan Amador to Tristan Brandt and Sabrina Ghayour. The awareness of the combination of sustainability and the highest quality continues to increase, if one thinks that the trend is not declining with Original Beans. Whereby the concept of Original Beans is understood holistically. So they rely on vegan chocolate, plastic-free, sometimes revolutionary, compostable packaging and plant a tree for each bar (which can be examined directly via a QR code on the packaging) – so that in the end every chocolate has a climate-positive balance. Snacking and saving the world can be so easy.
In Austria, it has recently been possible to acquire the technical skills for this profession as part of a separate apprenticeship. The Chocolatier / Chocolatière training regulations came into force on August 1, 2021.