Swiss farmers are concerned that Toblerone will no longer be produced from their milk in the future. This would be a major blow to the sector, as parts of the production have already been outsourced to Slovakia and the Matterhorn will disappear from packaging in 2023.
Farmers fear that the famous chocolate will contain less and less ‘Switzerland’, especially in products for export – which may soon be made from foreign milk powder.
Industry experts suspect that production of Toblerone for the international market will switch to foreign milk powder, while the chocolate sold in Switzerland will continue to be made with domestic ingredients.
No buyer for 40 million liters of milk?
The dairy industry is worried because this could have a significant impact on the Swiss milk market. About 40 million liters of milk could lose their copper, which is the amount of milk from about 6,300 cows.
Cocoa prices put pressure on chocolate producers
Mondelez, the manufacturer of Toblerone – and Milka – has not yet responded specifically to the speculation, but emphasizes that sustainability, quality and costs are taken into account when selecting suppliers. Rising cocoa prices are putting additional pressure on chocolate producers: foreign milk powder is cheaper than Swiss milk.
Processing traffic is increasing
According to the Swiss daily “Blick”, statistics show that more and more milk powder is coming to Switzerland from abroad to be processed here and then re-exported as a finished product. This is called processing traffic.
To compensate for the competitive disadvantage of the more expensive Swiss milk powder, there is a fund that partly covers the higher costs, but the import of foreign milk powder is still increasing. The industry is looking for solutions to stop this development, for example by higher export contributions for Swiss dairy products. People want to fight for Swiss chocolate, because without local milk it is no longer real Swiss chocolate.
Source: Krone
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