Taiwanese gobble our chocolate cheese

When those black-singleted boys from down on the farm used to sing about "that little bit extra that makes Chesdale sure to please", it's unlikely they meant chocolate.

But adding chocolate to Chesdale cheese slices has been a winning strategy for Fonterra in Taiwan.

The product is not available in New Zealand, but in just six months it has grabbed 10 per cent of the Taiwanese cheese market, bringing in more than $1 million in revenue.

Chocolate cheese was developed in New Zealand for about $50,000.

Roger Boyd, managing director of Fonterra Brands Taiwan, said adding chocolate to cheese was winning converts to dairy products in a market that traditionally had not eaten them.

While not designed for New Zealanders, the success of chocolate cheese means it is being assessed for local release - though Mr Boyd is making no promises.

He said it had "a mild chocolate flavour, matched to a light Cadbury flavour - we backed off a little from Nutella".

Chocolate cheese was likely to be introduced in Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Mr Boyd said Fonterra was looking at a range of other flavours, and had two in the pipeline already. But he would not say what they were.