Swiss chocolate on the road to recovery, but still below pre-crisis levels

According to the association Chocosuisse, the first year of the pandemic, 2020, saw sales in the sector decline by around 15%. The production volume of Swiss chocolate fell by some 10%. Much of this decline was reversed in 2021: sales increased by 11.8% up to CHF 1.709 bn, with sales volume rising 9.5% up to 197,100 tonnes.
After the export business showed sharp declines across all product categories in 2020, export volumes of Swiss chocolate rose 10.8% up to 139,209 tonnes in 2021, with revenues increasing 15.5% up to CHF 926 m. As a result, export volumes and revenues in 2021 were only slightly below pre-pandemic levels.
According to Chocosuisse, more Swiss chocolate was consumed in Switzerland in 2021 compared to the previous year. The volume sold domestically increased by 6.6% up to 57,891 tonnes. The main contributors to this were the good second third of 2021 and strong growth in the semi-finished segment. As a result, the volume of domestic sales in 2021 was only slightly below the pre-crisis year of 2019. Domestic market revenues increased by 7.7% up to CHF 783 m in 2021, but were still significantly below the level of 2019 (- 8.4%).

After the strong rise of the import share in recent years, the share of foreign chocolate in the Swiss market was around 42% in 2021. The share of the Swiss market held by importers has increased by almost a quarter within ten years (2011: 34%). Half of this trend is due to the fall in consumption of Swiss chocolate (from 8kg to 6.6kg per capita), the other half to the rise in consumption of imported chocolate (from 4kg to 4.7kg per capita).