>children hooked on sugar in lower-income countries<p>The children in higher-income countries were already spoken for by much more well-established multinationals.<p>It started centuries ago after moving tonnes of raw cargo from plantations in tropical agricultural colonies.<p>The crop was not commercialized internationally like the crystals were. The syrup was extracted, crystallized, and accumulated for most efficient transportation as a fungible commodity in bulk. The highly concentrated active ingredient of an agricultural product, at a landed cost very low among the digestible alternatives in so many markets. Tropical oils come to mind as another concentrated active ingredient from other crops.<p>Low cost alone can make some things fly off the shelf by themselves, but when you've got bulk, and trading, you get more <i>surplus</i> than lots of other times. And when the cost of some parcel of excess drops to effectively zero or even negative, it can fly off the shelf with much greater momentum, even if it is temporary while it lasts. But occasional stimulus effects like that over the centuries could outlast a market upset like few other things, sugar (and fat) are widely regarded as habit-forming. No stronger supply-chain to support the habit than to deal with the pure material.<p>Looks like Nestle is a multinational re-exporting a highly value-added commodity in bulk (at its own scale), and to some tropical countries which have great agricultural potential themselves. No wonder it seems to have been accomplished in a deceptive way.