/ 6 July 2007

From Lunchbar to Lindt

Once upon a time, chocolate lovers had it easy. Lunch bar or Bar One? Flake or Sweety Pie? Or, perhaps, an Inside Story. Splashing out meant buying a box of Cadbury’s Milk Tray or Côte d’Or for your hostess at a dinner party.

No longer. A sustained economic boom and growing affluence has seen an explosion of premium chocolates available in South Africa – with a worldwide trend towards increasingly sophisticated brands, bearing a price-tag to match. Any chocolate aficionado worth his/her salt must juggle the distinguished names of Lindt, Godiva, Green & Black, and Valrhona, to mention a few coveted international brands stocking supermarket shelves.

It is estimated that the local chocolate market is worth a respectable R2,9-billion. Tiger Brands, which owns Beacon, says imported goods make up about 39% of the sugar confectionery sector, which includes both sweets and chocolates. But it says that despite the influx of foreign products, it has been able to hold its own through a policy of zero price increases. Sales volumes for both chocolates and sweets have grown.

Although cheaper, mass-market chocolates will always hold the bulk of market share, there is increasing interest in higher-priced chocolates. Green & Black, the British organic dark chocolate brand now owned by Cadbury-Schweppes, was introduced in South Africa last year and is now widely available in supermarket chains. A variety of Lindt products have been available for some time. Valrhona, the French company revered for producing “the world’s best chocolate”, is available in selected delis.

But even this isn’t good enough for some discerning consumers, who seek out single-origin chocolates – known as cru – manufactured from the best cocoa beans grown on prize plantations. It’s called the Starbucks effect, according to the venerable Washington Post in a report on pre-Christmas chocolate sales almost two years ago. “The ubiquitous retailer introduced the word ‘barista’ into the national lexicon and raised the bar for what consumers would pay for gourmet coffee. Why shouldn’t consumers do the same for a Michel Cluizel chocolate bar for which all the beans were picked at a single plantation in Madagascar?”

Just as gourmet coffee became an everyday indulgence, so the bar was raised on other goods, notably chocolate. Consumers became used to paying higher prices for luxury treats, which, at the same time, were becoming more affordable as disposable income rose. Premium chocolatiers upped the stakes by trumpeting the high cocoa content of their products, which made for a richer and more satisfying indulgence. The best chocolate, luxury lovers learnt, came from cacao beans with names like criollo and trinitario, and trumpeted both the cultivar’s name and its cocoa mass. For the record, a true cocoa lover goes for 70% or more.

In South Africa, the widespread availability of premium brands meant increased interest in niche chocolate products. “The likes of Lindt made it more accessible,” said Richard von Geusau, owner of Greyton-based Von Geusau Chocolates. “They fostered an appreciation for better chocolate, so I don’t see them as my competitor.” Von Geusau has generated media interest through exotic flavours and unusual stunts, including chocolate made especially to complement wines from Waterford estate. Flavours such as chilli and rose geranium are particularly good sellers, but he’s also known for lavender and rock-salt varieties.

Chocolate insiders all credited the perceived health benefits of dark chocolate with driving consumer interest. While premium brands are on the rise, Lawrence de Robillard says increased awareness of health issues rather than affluence has driven the surge in luxury chocolate. De Robillard, who distributes Madagascar’s Robert chocolates in South Africa, says the market started to change about five years ago when articles about dark chocolate first appeared. “It’s a responsible indulgence,” he explained.

Robert, which is sold at health shops, is organic, dairy-free, and contains no additives. In fact, dark chocolate contains far more antioxidants than antioxidant-rich green tea and blueberries. About 85% of Robert customers are women over the age of 35. According to De Robillard, there’s a physical reason for this: medical research has shown that women need elements such as magnesium and selenium that are found in chocolate.

“Twelve years ago, when I first brought these chocolates into South Africa, I took it to a famous Belgian chocolatier. He said it was very good and that I could dilute it by at least four. ‘South Africans eat sweet soap’,” he said. I learnt that the taste in South Africa is for what elsewhere in the world is not legally called chocolate,” he said. De Robillard is right: the high vegetable fat content, which replaces cocoa in cheap products such as Easter eggs, disqualifies the product from being called chocolate in some developed countries.

He is curious that his customers are predominantly white. “Our rising middle class cannot abide chocolate.”