Industry is alarmed

Soon no more Swiss milk in Toblerone?

Dairy farmers want to fight for Swiss chocolate. Without local milk, there would be no real Swiss chocolate.

(Bild: AFP/2023 Getty Images)

Swiss farmers are concerned that Toblerone could no longer be made with their milk in the future. This would be a major blow for the industry, as parts of production have already been outsourced to Slovakia and the Matterhorn is known to have disappeared from the packaging by 2023. 

Farmers fear that the famous chocolate will contain less and less "Switzerland", especially in products for export - which may soon be made from foreign milk powder.

Industry experts suspect that the production of Toblerone for the international market will be switched to foreign milk powder, while the chocolate sold in Switzerland will continue to be made with domestic ingredients.

No buyer for 40 million liters of milk?
The dairy industry is alarmed, as this could have a significant impact on the Swiss milk market. Around 40 million liters of milk could lose their buyer, which is roughly equivalent to the milk of around 6300 cows.

Cocoa prices put chocolate producers under pressure
Mondelez, the manufacturer of Toblerone - and Milka, among others - has not yet commented specifically on the speculation, but emphasizes that suppliers are selected on the basis of sustainability, quality and cost. Rising cocoa prices are putting additional pressure on chocolate producers - foreign milk powder is cheaper than Swiss milk powder. 

Refining trade on the rise
According to the Swiss daily newspaper "Blick", statistics show that more and more milk powder is arriving in Switzerland from abroad to be processed here and then exported again as a finished product. This is known as processing traffic.

Although there is a fund to compensate for the competitive disadvantage of the more expensive Swiss milk powder, which partially covers the higher costs, the import of foreign milk powder is nevertheless increasing. The industry is looking for solutions to halt this trend, for example by increasing export contributions for Swiss dairy products. They want to fight for Swiss chocolate, because without domestic milk, there would be no real Swiss chocolate.