Are Australian Chocolates still made in China?

I knew that the factory in Melbourne had closed down and was moving over to China, from a friend that used to work there, but had not heard anything more after they closed.

 Found these but I was after Quality Streets Chocs.

Other products said they were made in China, Egypt and as far away as the Netherlands.

Twix bars for the Australian market are produced in the African country - where Mars announced they were investing $83million in 2013 to build a production line in Cairo.

It is not known how long the products have been made in overseas countries but eagle-eyed customers made the discovery recently before claiming they tasted nothing like the originals on Facebook. 

  +7    

Chocolate manufacturer Mars has prompted outrage from customers for making some of their most popular brands in China (pictured M&Ms blocks, which are made in China)

 

https://chocolateclass.wordpress.com/2015/03/13/chocolate-in-china-an-undeniably-foreign-delight/

 

Search for:A Little Too Foreign: The Spread of Chocolate in ChinaMarch 13, 2015Multimedia Essay 2Advertising, chocolate, consumer, dove, luxury good, marketing, marsaaas119x193

Thirty years ago, if one asked a random Chinese person about chocolate, the response would probably have be a quizzical stare, for chocolate was unknown in the Chinese vocabulary. Fast forward to today, where many Chinese regard chocolate as a delightful exotic treat, and brands that Westerners know and love make billions of dollars per year in China. But chocolate’s status as a foreign luxury is both its blessing and its curse. On the one hand, this image has proven most successful in enticing Chinese consumers, but on the other hand, it embodies distance. Enormous growth notwithstanding, chocolate still falls far from winning the hearts and tastebuds of China the way it has in the West.

Chocolate’s radical introduction into the Chinese diet and evolving image as an exotic curiosity occurred was driven by the dedicated efforts of large chocolate corporations. Beginning in the 80s, the Big Five global chocolate producers–Hershey, Nestle, Cadbury, Mars, and Ferrero Rocher–each experimented with different chocolate products and marketing tactics (Allen).

Bringing chocolate to China was not an easy task, for in terms of food, social structure, wealth, and market structure, China differed radically from Europe or America in ways that ill-suited the chocolate market. First, sugar appears only sparingly in Chinese cuisine, and dairy was a recent introduction. Second, infrastructure for chocolate production and distribution was lacking: transportation beyond the vicinity of major cities was slow, and refrigeration was absent, so in hot summer months, chocolate melted and spoiled easily. Third, most Chinese were still far poorer than their Western counterparts and had neither freedom to nor the habit of indulging in impulse buys of confections (Allen). Marketing tactics that succeeded in Europe and America were not transferrable.

The companies that did not understand and adapt to the above issues flopped. For example, Cadbury tried to market half-pound Dairy Milk Bars, not realizing that Chinese only tolerated sweets in bite-sized portions. Further, their use of local Chinese milk to cut costs made Chinese-produced Cadbury bars smell and taste somewhat cheesy, to the distaste of customers. Similarly, Nestle first found that the Chinese did not appreciate KitKats and then reduced ingredient quality to lower costs, dissatisfying the few KitKat customers they had and compromising their reputation for producing high-quality foods  (Wharton).

In contrast, the companies that adapted to Chinese ways could capture significant shares of the Chinese market. The first to enter, Ferrero Rocher noted that the Chinese tended to gift  sold their signature gold-wrapped truffles at a high price, imported from quality-controlled European factories. Noting that the Chinese tended to gift expensive foreign products, they marketed their product as a foreign luxury, pricey but perfect for special-occasion gifts (Allen).

A larger success story came from Mars’s Dove line. Introduced in China in the 1990s, Dove chocolates were bite-sized, smoother-tasting, and more romantically packaged than the average grab-bag chocolate. Reflecting its look and feel, its prices were on the high end of affordable. Essentially, Dove perfectly tread the line between luxury and everyday indulgence; it was worthy of being gifted but also fit for a random treat, like a Ferrero Rocher for the commoner. Marketed as such, Dove’s popularity swelled for good. Today, Dove captures nearly 40% of China’s chocolate market and is enjoying 50% growth per year (Wharton). Indeed, as longtime Hershey and Nestle executive Lawrence Allen writes, Dove became “the preferred chocolate taste with China’s first generation of chocolate consumers” (Allen 202).

The following Dove chocolate advertisement, aired on Chinese television, summarizes the image that not only Dove but chocolate in general has taken in China. A well-dressed girl waits at an expensive establishment; when her date calls, she coquettishly asks him to bring her a Dove bar. The advertisement closes with the girl blissfully enrobed by the chocolate. The message is clear: chocolate is romantic, seductive, classy, and overwhelmingly luscious.

Table of Contents

CADBURY

Harry Kelly, 'Cadbury's by mountain and sea, Claremont, Tasmania', 1950s (Tasmaniana Library, SLT)

The chocolate house of Cadbury was founded in Birmingham, England in 1830 and began exports to Australia in 1881. After the First World War a period of global expansion began and it was decided to establish manufacturing in Australia. A Commission was dispatched to find a suitable site and visited Melbourne and Sydney before a chance meeting with the Tasmanian Premier, Sir Walter Lee, saw members travel to Hobart. Here they found an eager workforce, plentiful electricity, international and interstate shipping and a cooler climate. They were able to purchase a site at Claremont which would enable them to develop an antipodean version of the Bournville 'factory in a garden' – the Quaker vision for modern industry.

In 1921 construction commenced on the 100-hectare River Derwent peninsula 13 kilometres north of Hobart. An official opening took place on 21 October and production commenced in January 1922 under the leadership of expatriate confectioners from England. They settled in the adjacent garden suburb, blessed with a school, playing fields and the river's coves and beaches. Several members of the original Commission stayed on as directors of the local board and built fine homes in the district. Meanwhile Cadbury had developed a unique process for making milk chocolate, and production of the famous Dairy Milk Chocolate commenced at Claremont in 1928.

After a difficult period through the Depression and the Second World War, Cadbury has flourished. A consistent policy of product development and technical investment sustained its competitive position until today it is the pre-eminent confectionery company in Australia. Other factories were acquired in Melbourne, and the company headquarters were moved there in 1971 to be closer to larger markets and key customers. Claremont has focused its production activity on moulded chocolate blocks, boxed assortments such as Favourites, Milk Tray and Roses, chocolate bars like Flake and Turkish Delight, Bournville Cocoa and the supply of Dairy Milk Chocolate to other factories. Recent investments in modern moulding and packaging equipment featuring robotics have been at the leading edge of technology and have given many staff overseas experience in the search for industry 'best practice'.

From a base established in 1948, a modern milk-processing factory has been developed near Burnie in Tasmania's rich north-western dairy country. It now processes some 15 percent of the state's milk output for Dairy Milk production. Tankers transport the milk south to Hobart.

Claremont retains the Company's 'the jewel in the crown' status. Cadbury is one of the largest private employers in Tasmania. It has been able to achieve an ideal pattern of productivity improvement, essential in a very competitive Australian confectionery market, coupled with growth in demand sustaining a steady level of employment and a workforce of undoubted skill, experience and loyalty. Today Claremont is not only a state-of-the-art manufacturing operation but also a major tourist attraction with more than 150,000 visitors each year. The Company has had a long history of community involvement through support for local groups, including charities and schools, and valuable sponsorship of events throughout the state.

Further reading: A Gardiner, The life of George Cadbury, London, 1923; E Barringer, Sweet success, New Zealand, 2000.

https://australianfoodtimeline.com.au/1822-cadbury-factory-opens/

Just be careful of the Cadbury Christmas special editions - last year I got a bar and it did not taste like Cadbury - it was made overseas. 

Most of the fancy stuff now comes from China and is more like compound than real so I don't buy it.

Wonder when our government will realise that there are very real adavantages in encouraging manufacturing industries that purport to be Australian to actually return to manufacturing in Australia?  America began this process with Trump and it has proven very successful.  Why not here?  Quality of finished products will always be better, jobs will be available and it has been shown through the American experience that manufacturing costs remain about the same.  With our current dependence on everything Chinese and China's current hostility towards us, there are many compelling reasons to move towards manufacturing at home.  A good example?  Even chocolates will taste better.  The only thing stopping us is the current negative attitude from the LNP government towards manufacturing in Australia.

Is the Purple One the same as Turkish Delight? It's my favourite!

Austalian made in Melbourne is Loving Earth. See links below for more info.

I saw that chocolate was being made in Australia from Australian grown cacoa beans on TV last night, was on the Escape from the City on the ABC, was in northern Queensland. Repeat is on Saturday at 3.30 pm.

Personally I do not eat chocolate because of the caffeine and over processing, it also gives me a head rush.

One thing to consider when buying chocolate is whether it is fair trade and organic, you might be buying chocolate that is from the slave labor trade or kids picking it.

https://www.choice.com.au/food-and-drink/sweets/chocolate/articles/organic-and-fair-trade-chocolate

https://www.biome.com.au/198-fair-trade-chocolate

 

Thanks Incognito, interesting.

Up until five years ago I could leave chocolate, not interested in it, since we have retired we have started to eat a bit of it, not bars of chocolate just the odd mini Magnum. 

Which is ironice as we could have had any chocolate grt grandfather started a confectionary business in London.   I remember when we first came out to Australia the family used to send us chocolate over the Christmas Break,  so we would find it delivered sitting on the front door step!  Of course it was not in a good state and once the brown chocolate melted a bit in the hot sun of Perth it used to change into a sort of white grey colour! 

Because everyone starts jumping up and down, this delivery was in the 50s and 60s. 

 

 

This is a newone on me, looks good also, has anyone tasted them please?

 

https://happytummies.com.au/collections/dairy-free-chocolate

 

Martha Stewart gifts famous chocolate caramel Mile-High cake to neighbor Richard Gere... after the actor saw her whipping it up on the Today Show: 'We took it over to him'

By CARLY JOHNSON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 13:04 AEDT, 17 October 2020 | UPDATED: 13:57 AEDT, 17 October 2020

  

She crafted one of her famous chocolate caramel Mile-High cakes during a recent remote appearance on the Today Show.

And Martha Stewart revealed that after whipping up the dessert on the daytime talk show, she generously handed it over to actor and neighbor Richard Gere, 71. 

'He is a neighbor and he wanted the chocolate caramel mile high cake- we took it over to him and his family after the show !' explained the 79-year-old food guru via Instagram on Thursday.

 Generous: Martha Stewart revealed that after whipping up one of her famous Mile-High cakes on the Today Show, she generously handed it over to actor and neighbor Richard Gere, 71; Martha pictured on Wednesday

Martha and Richard, both, happen to reside in the affluent town of Bedford located in New York, an area that is also home to beloved Hollywood couple Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. 

 

Child slavery and child labor have plagued the cocoa industry in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana —which produce 60% of the world’s cocoa—for decades. Despite promises from the world’s largest chocolate companies to eradicate the problem, evidence reveals that they have fallen far short of achieving their goal. 1

We are calling on 10 of the world’s top chocolate companies to take concrete steps to address the gaps in protection and the underlying drivers of child slavery and child labor in the cocoa sector. We are joining the Fair World Project, Mighty Earth, and Be Slavery Free in our call.

This means paying impoverished cocoa farmers living incomes, ending dangerous pesticide use—noting the high prevalence of child laborers and huge environmental toll—scaling up child labor monitoring and remediation systems, enactment of human rights due diligence measures, increasing traceability, and ending deforestation.

Chocolate industry leaders promised under the Harkin-Engel Protocol nearly 20 years ago to substantially reduce the worst forms of child labor—including child slavery—in the cocoa industry but they have failed to meet that goal.2

Our new call for action comes in advance of the release of a report by independent research institution NORC at the University of Chicago, examining the prevalence of child labor in cocoa plantations in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire under the Harkin-Engel Protocol.

A leaked early version of the report 3 suggests that despite decades of hype and voluntary corporate efforts, child labor in cocoa production has increased overall. As set out in our joint press release, the report also reveals the number of child laborers being exposed to harmful pesticides has increased.4

According to the 2020 United States Trafficking in Persons Report, young boys laboring on cocoa farms in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana find themselves subjected to human trafficking and forced labor with victims forced to perform back-breaking, hazardous work that threatens their well-being. 5Some are trafficked from neighboring West African countries, such as Burkina Faso and Mali, and controlled by a “big boss” who exploits them.6

“I admit that it is a kind of slavery,” admits one cocoa farmer. “They are still kids and they have the right to be educated today. But they bring them here to work, and it’s the boss who takes the money.”

These boys, some as young as six, are forced to spray dangerous pesticides, clear forests using sharp machetes, and carry sacks of cocoa weighing 100 pounds or more. The issue is so severe that former victims of forced child labor in Côte d’Ivoire have brought their case to the US Supreme Court, alleging that US firms were complicit in child slavery abroad. The victims claim that they were forced to work up to 14 hours a day, given only scraps of food to eat, and were severely beaten or tortured if they tried to escape. 7

Ten of the top global chocolate companies that produce candy such as M&M’s, KitKat, Ferrero Rocher, Mars, Cadbury, Lindt, Nestle, Hershey, and Godiva have long promised to step up efforts to eliminate child slavery and child labor at their supply chains’ origin in West Africa. For a product associated with luxury and indulgence such as chocolate, the exploitation and abuse of children in its production is particularly incongruous.

A 2018 study by Tulane University and Tony’s Chocoloney estimates that a large number of children in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are victims of forced labor, highlighting that many children on cocoa farms are exposed to hazardous working conditions. 8

Much of the problem is linked to chocolate companies paying extremely low prices for cocoa. Poverty is a root cause of child labor and forced labor. Unable to earn a living income for themselves, cocoa farmers may be forced to turn to young boys as a source of cheap and exploitable labor.

While many companies have turned to certification schemes and their own corporate social responsibility programs, these are not making a dent in the problem. This drives a race to the bottom with companies adopting the lowest possible standards necessary—or crafting their own—to create an ethical veneer. But statistics cut through the PR: forced child labor is not going away.

Traceability and transparency remain chronic problems for the chocolate industry. A major investigation by The Washington Post found that “Mars, maker of M&M’s and Milky Way, can trace only 24% of its cocoa back to farms; Hershey, the maker of Kisses and Reese’s, less than half; Nestlé can trace 49% of its global cocoa supply to farms.”9If companies are not able to trace and cannot fully trace their own supply chains, they should not be doing business.

But this is not just a labor issue – it is also about protecting the environment and recognizing that there is a link between child slavery and deforestation. If companies continue to destroy the farming lands, what will be left for future generations?  Due to the low price of cocoa, farmers have been squeezed to expand farms, going deeper into forests and sometimes using coercion to force boys to clear land using machetes to make way for cocoa production. 10

The desperate push to increase productivity to make ends meet also has these same young boys handling increasingly more dangerous pesticides. Not only is child labor not going away, but it is also becoming more dangerous for young people to put their health and safety at risk.

We can’t let chocolate companies continue at such a low pace and work individually. We call for a combined sector approach amongst chocolate companies and all the other stakeholders to rid the industry of this blight

Chocolate should not be on the market unless it is produced ethically and is free from modern slavery.

Take action today to demand that the world’s top chocolate companies step up to fully tackle child exploitation in West African cocoa once and for all.

https://www.freedomunited.org/advocate/chocolate-companies

 

I see Christmas things are coming out in the Chocolate line.

 

Cadbury Milk Chocolate Advent Calendar 200g A$10.00

Woolworths

Christmas Charm and Bracelet Advent Calendar: One A$19.00 Groupon AU 

Lindt Advent Calendar 158g A $26.99 MyerWinter Wonderland Advent Calendar 

A$31.67Dick Smith Free deliveryKorsch Korsch Holy Family Nativity Scene Double-Sided Advent Calendar One-Size

A$31.99 ZulilyCosy Christmas Advent Calendar (Countdown to Christmas)A$29.88 Matt Blatt Free deliveryChristmas Apartment Advent Calendar

A$38.62Dick Smith Free delivery  Mini House Wooden Christmas Advent Calendar Wall Hanging Elk House Fit 25 Chocolates Stand DIY

 

Decor Gifts A$40.00 WishOld-Time Christmas Village Sticker Advent Calendar (Dover Sticker Books)

A$18.37Dick SmithFree deliveryGermany Christmas Advent Calendar Grimm's Fairytales Scene Paper ADV2382

A $16.02 Etsy24pcs Christmas Countdown Calendar Gift Bag 1-24 Days Pocket Advent Christmas Party Decor

A$15.00WishAdvent Calendar - Downtown Christmas  A$39.89 Matt Blatt Free delivery

Lindt Bear Advent Calendar 250 g

A$23.53 MyDeal.com.auHatchwells Cat Advent Calendar