“Of all the chocolate eaten worldwide, only 2% caresses Chinese tastebuds. CHINA HAS more coffee-shop brands and more KFC branches than anywhere else on Earth. But chocolate has never hit the spot, with the average Chinese eating just 100g a year—a mere hundredth of what a French person guzzles. A few mass-market foreign brands—Mars, Ferrero, Nestlé and Hershey—account for four-fifths of Chinese consumption.
Mr Xie’s concoction is 58 yuan for a 100g chunk—equivalent to a cheap meal for two. Choc Revive is trying to take chocolate local. It sources its own beans from Africa, but has set up an R&D unit in China and does its own roasting and grinding. Its big investments are intended to produce economies of scale, but the know-how it is accruing may spread and give rise to competitors. Another local chocolate company, Nibbo, has been winning international awards for its creamy sweets. Saturnbird, which started as a coffee grower in south-west China, is now planting its own cacao trees there. It is an awkward time to be selling premium products to belt-tightening consumers. Churning out the cheapest possible goods to undercut rivals is the usual formula. Milk-tea brands are a case in point.
