THE wildest dreams of dentists, health campaigners and concerned parents are coming true. Children are losing their taste for sugary sweets.

According to new trade figures the British confectionery market, which was claimed to be worth more than £5 billion a year in the mid 1990s, achieved sales in the 12 months to July this year of only £3.75 million.

Taylor Nelson Sofres, the firm of market analysts, calculates that sales of sugar-based confectionery have fallen by almost an eighth in volume since July 1999, and lost 2.6 per cent in value. The total confectionery market shrank by almost 6 per cent by volume, and nearly 3 per cent in value, the most significant decline since monitoring began at the end of postwar rationing.

Confectionery companies blame a variety of factors for their loss of sales, including the decline in the number of corner shops, supermarkets’ preference for own-brands, and the changing habits of children. They fear that instead of eating sweets children are spending their pocket money on mobile phone cards or Pokémon cards.

Experts say that the overall drop in sweet sales could also be down to the lack of exciting new products. Recently firms have concentrated on bringing out new limited editions of the same sweets, such as KitKat, Flake and Twix bars.

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