Originally Posted By: oilyriser
Do they grow cocoa in the US?
I imagine that it's cheaper to import the raw products than it is finished product, in terms of total energy expended in the processing.
Until bananas are a buck a pound, I have to admit that it's still way too cheap to ship stuff.
I really despise the notion that everything has to "get worse" to become sensible. It's really stupid to send scrap steel to China to have it processed and then sent back to the same place on the other side of the planet for use. It's the same for anything. Now if you've got unlimited energy, no problem. Let others slave away to give you stuff for slips of green paper
Many of our current imports are masked imports that are otherwise restricted. Danes can't import butter, which they have a surplus of. They can import butter cookies at a decent price. Some Austrian chocolate is in the same niche. I see Austrian chocolate and Danish cookies at Aldi ..the all time discount grocery chain that reduced the "food bank" surplus a good bit. Both of these nations have as high, or higher, cost of living than we do.
What bothers me about this trend with companies like Hershey is that they are what I consider very good companies. They produce a quality product and employment. Instead of retreating to a smaller status, due to demographic pressures, they're opting to maintain some status with lower costs.
