Click for more photos

Award-winning French dessert chef Hugues Pouget has his work cut out for him as he tries to turn the Chinese into chocoholics.

"In Europe, we have centuries of history about chocolate. Here, there's none," said Pouget, a 31-year-old champion of the France Des Desserts competition who started teaching Chinese chefs how to make gourmet chocolate in May.

"But Chinese people like to learn Western styles. They especially love chocolate with peanuts, mangoes and strawberries."

Lured by a huge potential market, Barry Callebaut, the world's biggest chocolate maker, moved its Asia headquarters to China from Singapore in January and brought Pouget to its Chocolate Academy in Suzhou, a city of quaint ancient pavilions and acres of new factories about 90 minutes' drive from Shanghai.

The Swiss company hopes that chocolate recipes cooked up at the academy, its second in Asia after a Singapore centre, can tempt Chinese consumers to gobble up the 25,000 tonnes of chocolate a year it will be churning out at a nearby factory.

Major global chocolate brands such as the Hershey Company and Cadbury Plc, already Barry Callebaut clients in other parts of the world, have swarmed to China.

China's 6.46 billion yuan a year ($922 million) chocolate market is less than 1 percent of the world's total.

Yet rising wealth and the increasing influence of Western tastes are fuelling annual market growth of more than 10 percent, compared with 1 to 2 percent in Europe, according to market intelligence company Euromonitor International.

Affluent tastes

Today, an average Chinese eats only 100 grams of chocolate a year, with consumption concentrated in affluent coastal cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

"I don't think that the Chinese will ever eat 10 kilograms per head like the Swiss, but they may eat 2 kilograms per head like the Japanese and the Koreans," Barry Callebaut Asia Pacific Vice-President Maurizio Decio said.

China's chocolate nibblers today are mostly young people aged 15 to 24, according to a survey by Sinomonitor. Young affluent Chinese might be developing a sweet tooth, but the taste buds of most Chinese favour salty foods.

Salted pork, fish, crab and beans are a common feature on Chinese breakfast tables, while youngsters often snack on salted dried fruit and drink salty soda pop.

Beijingers consume 12 to 15 grams of salt a day on average, compared with 6 grams suggested by the World Health Organisation.

And it's not just taste that poses a challenge.

"There's a misconception that chocolate is fattening and associated with diabetes and heart disease. That's why many health-conscious Chinese avoid it," said Xiao Mingchao, head of research at Sinomonitor.

Still, a survey by the company showed that 42.3 percent of urban Chinese consumed chocolate at least once during 2007, up from 37.9 percent in 2006 and 34.9 percent in 2005, spurred by billions of dollars in marketing and branding by foreign chocolate makers.

"Deep-pocketed multinationals like Mars have been building their brands in the Chinese market for many years," said Zhao Yanping, secretary general of the China Association of Bakery and Confectionery Industry.

"Chocolate is not a necessity. It's more about branding and emotional attachment."

Mars Inc has spent heavily to make M&M's classic slogan, "Melts in your mouth, not in your hands," familiar to large numbers of Chinese, while its Dove chocolate has cultivated an image of silky elegance.