Maybe its the rising incomes of the younger middle class, maybe its because India as a nation has a rich tradition of desserts, or maybe its because of upcoming holidays such as Sweetest Day, Diwali and other more traditional holidays, but India is the fastest growing market for chocolate in the world surpassing even China and according to a recent Wall Street Journal article explaining why cocoa futures have been the best performing commodity YTD. Nestle SA, Ferrero Rocher and Hershey's among others are positioning themselves to take advantage of the potential for retail sales which are expected to grow 20% annually through 2017. Gold consumption in 2012 was 864.2 tons. It will be interesting to see if this shift in cocoa and "designer chocolate" will at all effect the usual upward shift in gold that takes place during the upcoming holiday season given that India's economic growth is the lowest in a decade.