Data from market research firm ACNielsen showed sales of confectionery, biscuits, crisps and nuts rising 1.6 per cent between in the first three months of the year.

By comparison, Europe's largest economy shrank 3.8 per cent in the same period, as demand collapsed around the world for exports of German cars, chemicals and machinery, and as Germans cut down on spending.

'At the moment the industry is benefiting from a trend of people saying 'I'll treat myself with something small',' Alfons Strohmaier from the German confectionery association, the SG, told AFP.

'People are still going shopping but they are not necessarily buying something big. Instead they buy something small to spoil themselves. Perhaps in times of crisis people think that chocolate bar will do them good right now.'

Firms have cottoned on to this, he said, with many increasing their spending on advertising and launching new products to catch depressed consumers' attention.

The biggest gains were with salty snacks, soaring 12.0 per cent, the figures showed.

Sales of sweets rose 3.4 per cent while those of biscuits were up 5.9 per cent.

Chocolate fell 3.8 per cent, in part due to Easter falling in April. -- AFP