This Country Exports More Candy Than Any Other — And It Might Surprise You

Germany has a long history with candy, richer and more storied than many of us realize. The country is the birthplace of popular confections like gummy bears, and legend has it that the candy cane as we know it was invented at the Cologne Cathedral in 1670. The city of Lübeck is world-famous for its marzipan and is part of the town's very identity. Sweets are just a big part of the country's history.

Research from Tendata showed that 12.9% of all exported sweets in the world came from Germany in 2022. That number puts it comfortably ahead of all other major exporters like China and Mexico by a good margin. The United States doesn't even come close, exporting less than 5%. Germany was also the only country with over $2 billion in confectionery exports in 2023, as noted by Statista. This makes Germany the largest exporter of sweets in the world by both volume and value.

Keep in mind that Germany supplies most of the world's chocolate, too. But chocolate is factored separately from sweets and other confections. When you include chocolate in the numbers, then, in 2023, Germany shipped out another $6 billion on top of the $2.1 billion in candy exports. Worldbank.org, via Datapulse, claimed that was the equivalent of 989,674 tons of chocolate. Oh, and if you were wondering, German chocolate cake wasn't even invented in Germany, so that's not part of this.

Part of the reason that Germany is such a powerhouse of candy making today is the major companies based there. Storck, maker of Werther's Original, Toffifee, and more, and Ritter Sport are based in Germany. If you're a fan of gummy bears, you should know that Haribo, the company founded by the man who invented gummy bears, hails from Germany. We ranked 15 of Haribo's most popular gummy candies, in case you have a sudden craving.

While those big-name companies are easily recognized, there are hundreds of other companies that export sweets from Germany. Worldwide, dozens of countries and thousands of buyers purchase from these German suppliers. German confections have a strong reputation for quality, thanks to strict production standards, premium ingredients, and some of the most advanced manufacturing facilities in the industry.  

Deeper than simple manufacturing is a cultural link to sweets. They love eating candy as much as they seem to be committed to making it. According to research conducted for the National Retail Federation's Halloween Consumer Spending Survey, Germany ranked among the world's top consumers of candy by weight per person in 2016.