100,000 villages to bite into Cadbury as rural India develops taste for it

Illinois-based Mondelez, India's No.1 chocolate maker, said "the big bulk" of a $150 million increase in global investment this year - the first hike in five years - will be in rural India

Two years ago, Satish P, a bakery owner in the small village of Harohalli near Bengaluru, had his doubts about stocking Mondelez’s Cadbury Silk bars.

Priced between Rs 70 and Rs 170, they seemed out of reach for customers used to paying only Rs 5  for the tiny chocolates he has sold for years. But he took a chance and now rings up to Rs 3,500 ($50) in Silk bar sales a month. “Villagers can afford premium chocolates now,” he said.

As Satish and other Harohalli shopkeepers have found chocolate sales in India are taking off, helped by growth in