The Swiss group Barry Callebaut, one of the world's largest chocolate producers, said Thursday that its annual net profit grew by 10.4 percent despite a decline in global chocolate consumption. Net profit for the 2008/2009 financial year ending on August 31 reached 226.9 million Swiss francs (150.2 million euros, 225.3 million dollars), the industrial chocolate giant said in a statement. Annual sales revenue grew by 1.3 percent to 4.88 billion Swiss francs, as the results fell in line with analysts' forecasts. Barry Callebaut underlined that its sales grew despite the strength of the Swiss franc and a market decline that affected cocoa prices. Citing figures from analysts Nielsen, the company said global chocolate consumption had fallen by two percent over the year to July, with some of the strongest declines in China (minus 10.9 percent) and the United States (6.6 percent). 'I am pleased that we were able to deliver strong top-line and bottom-line growth in the face of a rarely seen global chocolate consumption decline,' said chief executive Juergen Steinemann. The company has sought to expand into emerging markets such as Mexico. Steinemann said the company wanted to pursue that expansion and highlighted growth opportunities in outsourcing with industrial customers. The group is targeting an average of six to nine percent volume growth per year over the next three financial years with similar growth in earnings. 'We expect the economic environment to remain challenging and volatile,' said Steinemann. 'With our three-year financial targets we will continue to significantly outperform the global chocolate market -- as always barring any major unforeseen events and based on local currencies,' he added. Barry Callebaut specialises in raw materials, semi-finished products or chocolates for other brands and chain stores. 