INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
HISTORY
Chocolate manufacturing in USA started as early as the colonial period when Physician Dr. James Baker and Irish immigrant John Hannon opened New England’s first chocolate factory in 1765 at a water-powered mill in Massachusetts. Baker’s Chocolate sold hard cakes of chocolate that the colonists ground and mixed with boiling water to make hot chocolate. Drinking chocolate was also considered patriotic during the colonial period when taxes were levied on tea by the Townsends Tea Act. Chocolate was also used a ration for its revolutionary fighters.
Post colonisation, chocolate became more affordable when Milton Hershey began producing large masses of low-priced milk chocolates. In 1905, to be near farms that could supply fresh milk, he opened a new chocolate factory in Pennsylvania that would become the world’s largest. Milton Hershey is credited by some to be the “Henry Ford of chocolate” due to the fact that he was able to produce chocolates at a cheap rate.During the periods of the World war, chocolate was included in the rations for soldiers and till date chocolate is provided to the armed forces by the government itself.
PRESENT DAY
In the present day scenario, the industry is dominated by major mass manufacturers such as Kraft Inc, Mondelēz International Inc (USA), Mars and Hershey’s among a few others. In the global scenario, it is the American manufacturers who are on top of the market followed by few other European and Japanese companies. A