TODAY we can update the old axiom about sending coals to Newcastle. Netto is importing Smarties into York.

This must be one of the more bizarre consequences of the global marketplace. Instead of selling Smarties made perhaps a mile away at Nestl Rowntree's Haxby Road factory, Netto's supply is brought all the way from Frankfurt in Germany.

The cost to the environment caused by such a ludicrous journey is not a consideration. All that matters to a discount retailer such as Netto is the cost. It is cheaper for the Danish supermarket to buy in supplies of both Smarties and After Eight Mints from abroad than from the factory on its doorstep.

This is a worrying confirmation of the damaging effect the strong pound is having on Nestl's York operation. Last week's headlines were dominated by the suggestion that it would be better for the future of the Rowntree workforce if Britain joined the euro. It was said then that exports were being hit because European wholesalers were buying KitKats from Frankfurt because they were cheaper.

That bad news was offset, we were told, by the excellent sales of Haxby Road KitKats in Britain, boosted by the Chunky version. Clearly if British stores choose to pass over the York product in favour of Germany's output that could knock Rowntree's domestic success story.

Fortunately, though, chocolate sales are not all about price. Taste is still the most important factor. People are loyal to their favourite confections and are unlikely to be persuaded to change merely to save a few pennies.

Germans must savour lactose, whey powder and soya lecithin, ingredients present in the Frankfurt interpretation of Smarties but not in the York originals. Britons do not. Our unscientific taste test recorded a unanimous vote in favour of the local product. The message was unequivocal: give us York Smarties any day of the week.

That will give those international economists something to chew over.