Sweet taste of success for chocolate companies

Chocolate retailers recorded a further jump in business in the week leading up to March 14, White Day. This is a commercial holiday observed in some Asian countries, when men are supposed to offer gifts to their sweethearts, one month after Valentine's Day, when women gifted them chocolates.

Chocolate sales in China are expected to expand to $4.3 billion by 2019, rising nearly 60 percent from $2.7 billion in 2014, lifted by outstanding demand from the growing urban population, Bert Alfonso, president of Hershey International, forecast in a recent webcast at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York conference.

The anticipation reflects chocolate multinationals' bet against growing demand from emerging markets. Their expansion plans aren't slowing down, despite the profound changes in China's economic structure.