108 Chocolate Fortunes
first few years producing chocolate in China, this turned out
to be prudent.
Two aspects of the Chinese chocolate market were instru-
mental in Johnson’s decision about manufacturing Hershey
chocolate in China. First was the high retail price for choco-
late in China, attributable in large part to Mars and Cadbury
having established factories there. High prices were necessary
to pay back the investment made in these factories. This
served as a financial umbrella under which Hershey could sell
imported products in China at a relatively high price, and it
was a stabilizing factor for chocolate retail prices, since these
investment burdens for Hershey’s competitors would not go
away overnight. Second was the relatively low cost of export- ...