There's at least one area where Belgium rules the world -- chocolate -- a British newspaper reports.

ADVERTISEMENT

The country has 2,000 chocolate shops, or one for about every 5,000 residents. Its 290 manufacturers produce 172,000 tons of chocolate every year, even though 140 of them are boutique chocolatiers with fewer than five employees, The Independent reports.

Some candy-makers specialize only in one type of filling.

Passion Chocolate -- run by a woman who decided to go into business after her husband's death -- has become so fashionable that Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt took its candies on a trade mission to the United States and its chocolates have been shipped to the White House. Another company, Chocolate Mary, has a photograph of President George W. Bush at the counter examining its products.

Smaller companies say the Internet is driving up their international sales. Chocolate Mary reports its air-freight shipments to the United States, India and South Korea have been doubling annually.