Candymakers make bittersweet move to Mexico

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/02/13/20090213mexico-sweets0213.html

by Chris Hawley - Feb. 13, 2009 12:00 AM
Republic Mexico City Bureau

TOLUCA, Mexico - Nothing says Valentine's Day in America like flowers and candy. But increasingly, the candy is coming from Mexico.

From jellied hearts to Hershey's chocolates, Mexico's candy exports to the United States have more than doubled since 2002 as cheaper labor and sugar draw U.S. candymakers south of the border.

The latest arrival is Hershey, which is building a 1,500-employee factory in the northern city of Monterrey to replace plants it has closed in the United States and Canada. It's following the lead of companies ranging from Brach's Confections, famous for its caramels, to Ferrera Pan Candy, the maker of Red Hots and Jaw Breakers. Quantcast

Confectioners say that they're just trying to survive in a cutthroat market and note that most U.S. candy is still made in the United States.

But U.S. unions bemoan the loss of candymaking jobs. From 2000 to 2007, such jobs in the U.S. dropped 23 percent, to 75,440 from 98,050, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. A 2006 U.S. Commerce Department report said cheaper sugar and labor overseas were partly to blame.

"All these companies want to make it cheap overseas somewhere, then bring it back and sell it to our people who don't have any jobs to buy it," said Dennis Bomberger, business manager of Chocolate Workers Local 464 in Hershey, Pa.

FULL story at link.

[Bluzmann57]

1. I used to work at a well known candy company

Which moved to Mexico. I hate that fuckin' company and I will say it here. Brach's candy management can kiss my ass.

[Bluebear]

2. Shame on you, Hershey

[ananda]

3. Yes.. the Catch 22.

Outsource manufacturing to the point
that Americans don't have the jobs
or money to buy the outsourced products....

[Selatius]

4. Free trade simply means exploiting cost differentials between different labor pools.

If labor could move as easily as capital, there would be no race to the bottom.

[CoffeeCat]

5. They do this and then they wonder...

...why the economy is going into the shitter?

Geez, candy makers! If you ship jobs away from the United States, pretty soon
there are no JOBS in the United States. That means, we have high unemployment
and fewer dollars to spend on your candy bars.

Just who in the hell do these companies think is going to spend money on their
products--when the entire country is unemployed?

I still can't believe that companies are moving plants and jobs to other countries.

Haven't they learned by now, that this is a sure way to bankruptcy--in the long run?

[treestar]

27. Well in this case

Giving them jobs down there keeps them down there, so they don't come for our jobs up here!

:rofl:

Still, we don't have to manufacture everything. Why can't we specialize in towels and sheets or movies or whatever it is we make, and drop the things we aren't so good at? Mexicans make good leather, we print books. The Swiss make watches, the British make raincoats, the Chinese make toys. Too many DUers assume that keeping all trade in one country is always best. Based on what? It always helps to specialize. I mean, if you are like a teacher, why don't you sew your own clothes, too? Why can't the specialization be on a national level?

There's this knee jerk reaction that it is always bad for our economy when something goes on in another country.

[TahitiNut]

6. "cheaper sugar" = no prohibition on using Cuban cane sugar

But the almighty U.S. sees fit to embargo Cuba and grant ADM an entitlement. Dumb. :banghead:

[Me.]

7. I Don't Buy Hershey's Anymore

Not once they started substituting vegetable oil for cocoa butter.

[lurky]

8. "MADE IN MEXICO" should be printed in large type

on the front of every package. I personally want to know if my food is processed in a foreign country with corrupt officials and questionable health and safety enforcement. I can't imagine that Mexico is much better than China in that regard. Plus, these "All-American" companies like Hershey should be forced to let everyone know how they are shipping our jobs away. This would be easy to legislate.

[RB TexLa]

10. Yes, and make sure it's on all foreign peanut butter

:rofl:

You know for the health and safety concerns.

:rofl:

[Two Americas]

12. oh really?

Are you really trying to compare the risks and dangers from contaminated food produced here to that produced in Mexico and China? Or was it just an opportunity to express some hostility toward another member?

[brentspeak]

19. Be aware that you're responding to the DLCer formerly known as "RGBolen"

Who's loathing of the American working person is well-documented on DU, and is already creating a brand-new backlog of winners -- like this defense of sending even fast-food drive-thru positions to foreign countries:

http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4906188&mesg_id=4906235

As well as this wish to get rid of the Estate Tax (RB worked very hard for that inheritance):

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4982422&mesg_id=4982436

[Two Americas]

26. yes

I have no fear of anyone here, and no fear of any subject or any discussion.

[jmowreader]

20. Uhh...the peanut butter that's been killing people is made in Georgia

[RB TexLa]

21. I know that.

[slampoet]

11. a label that says Made in Mexico on Hersheys Chocolate would ONLY Increase Sales.

Hecho en Mexico is the Sign of QUALITY when it comes to chocolate.

[BlooInBloo]

14. Don't bother. Nothing will alter the mood of the "damn foreigners" part of America.

[slampoet]

9. Chocolate WAS INVENTED IN MEXICO and mexican Chocolate is Fantastico!!

Have you ever had chocolate soooo good that you got HIGH of just a single little square?


I have, and it was Chocolate from Oaxaca Mexico.


Have you ever wondered why chocolate has the reputation as a drug and an aphrodisiac yet it isn't that powerful?

It is because you have been eating weak watered down US and European chocolate and have no idea what the real stuff is like.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[TahitiNut]

16. I don't think it was called "Mexico" then ... and doubt they spoke Spanish.

Besides, I think it was somewhat south of present-day Mexico ... around Honduras way. :shrug:

Whatever.

[slampoet]

18. Wkkipedia is your friend.

"The word "chocolate" comes from the Aztecs of Mexico, and is derived from the Nahuatl word xocolatl <1> which is a combination of the words, xocolli, meaning "bitter", and atl, which is "water". The Aztecs associated chocolate with Xochiquetzal, the goddess of fertility.",


However you are right about one thing with Honduras, the oldest Archaeological evidence of Chocolate dates back to a site in Honduras discovered in 2004, however there is not a surviving Chocolate making tradition in that area and many Mexican sites are unexcavated due to the government of mexico being more adverse to exploration than others in the area.

[TahitiNut]

22. Strange.

You could've just said "You're right."

Very strange. :eyes:

[Two Americas]

23. when you are right you are wrong

It is a new fashion here. When you are right, that proves you were wrong, because you were previously implying that you were right and the others who disagreed with you were wrong when you originally posted the right information, and now we can see that everyone agrees with you and certain politicians do as well, or perhaps everyone agrees because certain politicians now do, so therefore those who opposed you before are right now, and you are wrong.

:silly:

[TahitiNut]

24. Sounds like a game of musical chairs in the Argument Clinic.

:silly: :rofl: :silly: :rofl: :silly:

I must've sat on a dead parrot.

[Two Americas]

25. LOL!

That's it, yes!

:rofl:

[shanti]

15. oh great

i just love lead in my candy :eyes:

[TlalocW]

17. Right around the time Hershey's moved to Mexico

I found a book from when I was in grade school that was a biography of Milton Hershey. I read it again for kicks - took about half an hour. I'm sure there was more to the story than what was in the book, but apparently even during the Great Depression, he didn't fire anyone and kept building not only his factories but the town and various social services in Hershey, Pennsylvania. At the end of his life, he felt proud that even after he left, the smell of chocolate would always waft out of his factories over the town.

I guess not.

TlalocW

[Jakes Progress]

31. There was a big dust up

a few years back over the control and direction of the Hershey company and foundation. Looks like the scum rose to the top again.

[kentuck]

28. I will make a point to not buy Brach's or Hershey's...

They can keep their candy.

[old mark]

29. I live near Reading, PA where Hershey had a factory that

employed many entire local families, somtimes several generations of families. They all permanently lost their jobs when Hershey closed the plant with little notice a short time ago.
Hershey not only moved the facility to Mexico, but cut the amount of cocoa in their products, decreased the sizees andc increaded the price.

I have not bought any Hershey products since last year, and never will again.

mark

[L0oniX]

30. That's right ...just keep out sourcing and eventually no one here will have income to buy your shit.

ASSCARROTS!