Americans buy more chocolate on Valentine’s Day than on any other day. That’s saying a lot considering the average American eats nearly 12 pounds of chocolate a year.
But Americans have nothing on the Swiss—they treat themselves to more than 22 pounds of chocolate a year. Banks in Switzerland even hand out gourmet truffles to customers instead of lollipops.
What fuels Switzerland’s chocolate craving? It’s certainly not cheap sugar prices.
In addition to holding the title for chocolate consumption, the Swiss also pay the highest sugar prices in the world. Grocery shoppers are asked to fork over 93 cents for a pound of sugar, compared to just 43 cents per pound in America.
Switzerland isn’t the only chocolate-loving country with high-sugar prices.
Sixteen of the world’s top 20 chocolate-consuming countries are from Europe, with Europeans owning the top nine slots, according to CAOBISCO, a trade association representing Europe’s confectionary industry.
Yet, candy makers in the EU pay almost twice as much for sugar as their U.S. counterparts.
“Obviously rock-bottom sugar prices don’t translate into candy sales,” said Jack Roney, an economist for the American Sugar Alliance. “If it did, we’d rank much higher in worldwide candy consumption because U.S. prices are low when compared to other developed countries.”
And affordable American prices aren’t a recent phenomenon. At 26 cents a pound in January, chocolate makers pay less for U.S. sugar today than they did in 1980 or in 1990.
Despite affordable domestic prices, U.S. food manufacturers are angling to pay even less for their sugar.
Large food companies are lobbying Congress to scrap the current no-cost sugar policy in favor of $1.3 billion a year in subsidy checks. Government subsidies would drive down sugar prices for food manufacturers but would not affect the price of sugar or candy for grocery shoppers.
“History shows that when sugar prices drop, food companies pocket the savings to boost profits instead of passing it along to consumers through cheaper Valentine’s chocolates,” Roney explained.
For example, wholesale sugar prices registered 30 cents in 1990—four cents more expensive than current prices. Yet the cost of candy, cakes, and other sweet treats has risen by as much as 50 percent over that time, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
U.S sugar producers are encouraging Congress to ignore calls for subsidy checks. Instead, they want lawmakers to renew the current sugar program, which has operated at no cost to taxpayers and has created affordable and stable sugar prices.
Chocolate Consumption vs. Sugar Price
Where’s the Correlation?