Swiss chocolate – Made in France, Germany and Italy

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Easter is in four weeks. Chocolate bunnies have already conquered the retail trade. The leader of the annual edition is still Lindt & Sprüngli’s golden rabbit.

The hip gold guarantee was sold 120 million times at Easter. For the chocolate nation, the golden rabbit not only means money and glory, but also evokes the problems of the Swiss chocolate industry: the best-selling chocolate is specially produced at the German Lindt factory in Aachen.

That’s why the golden rabbit is one reason to enjoy more imported chocolate in Switzerland. Their share has grown from 34 percent to 42 percent in the decade — from 2011 to 2021.

Lindt & Sprüngli is not solely responsible for this. However, the big business sells a lot of stuff from overseas factories here. The Coop online store reveals that the bars in the Excellence line usually come from France, the chocolate balls and Lindor balls usually come from Italy, and the pralines from Germany.

Lindt spokesperson sees no deception

Origin declared. However, many customers should automatically assume a Swiss product when they read the name Lindt & Sprüngli.

But the company doesn’t want to know anything about a scam: “The place of manufacture is always indicated on the packaging,” says a spokesperson. The company also announces that “about 65 percent of our products for the Swiss market are produced here”.

Conversely, this means that one out of every three Lindt & Sprüngli end products that arrive on Swiss shelves is imported.

Lindt & Sprüngli finds this import quota low due to the group’s international orientation and emphasizes that Switzerland is indispensable for the group: “In Switzerland, we produce far above the market’s own requirements.” The spokesperson explains that a large number of products are produced in Germany, France or Italy in this country and there is a variety of products: “It is impossible for us to produce all of our 2000 products in one place.”

An understandable argument. However, it is also clear that Switzerland as an industrial region is not the top priority for Lindt & Sprüngli. The cocoa mass production plant in Olten SO is currently being modernized and expanded. But abroad, expansion has been challenged much more in recent years.

Only a fraction of employees in Switzerland

Germany, France, Italy and the USA are now more important for production than Switzerland. Only 1,000 of the approximately 14,500 employees are employed in this country.

This may be related to strategic considerations, but primarily to lower production costs: nowhere are workers as expensive as in Switzerland.

According to Urs Furrer, director of the Chocosuisse industry association, staff costs aren’t the only reason why major Swiss chocolate brands — and soon Toblerone too — are producing their products abroad. First of all, he blames the “agricultural framework conditions”: “The Swiss raw materials market is closed and therefore artificially more expensive.”

For many consumers, Swiss loyalty ends with their wallets, Furrer says. Even with chocolate.

Source :Blick