Both sales and turnover generated by Swiss chocolatiers in 2012 were down on the previous year – with export turnover melting particularly fast.
Total sales dropped by 2.2 per cent and turnover by 3.4 per cent to SFr1.63 billion ($1.77 billion), Chocosuisse, the umbrella organisation of the Swiss chocolate industry, reported on Friday.
Switzerland’s 18 chocolate manufactures reported losses both at home and abroad. Chocosuisse blamed this on the strong franc, which made Swiss chocolate expensive for people abroad and made imported chocolate cheaper.
Moderate consumption within Switzerland held local sales to 68,479 tonnes, a drop of 1.2 per cent. However, turnover rose slightly by 0.3 per cent to SFr872 million.
Per capita consumption within Switzerland for the year remained unchanged at 12 kilograms, still one of the highest amounts in the world.
Exports, on the other hand, fell by 2.9 per cent to 103,897 tonnes, with turnover collapsing by 7.3 per cent to SFr760 million.
Negative figures were reported for the majority of Switzerland’s main European trading partners, except Germany, Britain and Belgium.