German chocolate sales grew by 3.6 per cent in the first five months of the year to €1.1 billion, but the heat wave in June is likely to have taken a major toll on consumption.
According to the latest figures from market research company AC Nielsen cited by Reuters, the January-May figures showed that chocolate prices were staring to recover after dropping sharply due to competition between the major retail chains.
This is clear from the disparity between the rise in value and the rise in volume sales: the latter increased by just 0.6 per cent in the period to 138,400 tons.
Within the chocolate market as a whole, countlines showed the best growth, with sales of 100 gram bars increasing by 8.6 per cent to €259 million and bars over 100 grams rising 13.2 per cent to €59.5 million.
This was the sector hardest hit by the retail price war, and its recovery is good news for the country's chocolate makers.
But countlines were the not the only products to improve - sales of boxed chocolates rose 12.1 per cent to €102.5 million during the period.
But German confectioners are likely to be disappointed by the figures from June, with the exceptionally hot early summer weather expected to lead to a significant downturn in sales. Even with the return to more normal pricing, sales will almost certainly decline for the month, and the longer the heat wave continues, the sharper the decline is likely to be.