208 Chocolate Fortunes
Though exporting from its new China factory to markets
in the Asian Pacific region may have been a strategically
sound hedge against the risk of possible slow going in China,
Hershey’s timing couldn’t have been worse. The melamine cri-
sis has made consumers within the region wary of all food
products coming from China, not just chocolate.
7
Although
Hershey does not use Chinese milk in its chocolate (the com-
pany claims to have never purchased any Chinese milk), the
company will be fighting an uphill battle to sell products from
its new Jinshan facility outside of China.
But the biggest risk to Hershey’s new China initiative will
likely be the same as it has always been: the company’s his-
toric inability to sustain an investment