The Australian sweets we should be selling to America

Violet Crumbles are being exported to the United States again after the chocolate bar returned to Australian ownership last year. Adelaide family business Robern Menz sent 77,000 Violet Crumbles to the United States last week in response to American demand for a chocolate-covered honeycomb bar – a unique offering in the land of Reese's, Baby Ruths and Butterfingers.

We think there's an opportunity for other domestic treats to be exported to candy aisles across America given a growing global love for all things Australian. Here are five local favourites to rub wrappers with Twizzlers and Twinkies.

Iced VoVo

The word "iconic" is thrown around too often these days when people just mean famous. Few Australian things are truly iconic but the Iced VoVo is one of them – up there with the Opera House and Boonie's beer gut. Arnott's trademarked the name for its "delicious and dainty" biscuit of raspberry jam, fondant and coconut in 1906 and the VoVo has been an afternoon tea staple ever since. Arnott's is now owned by Campbell Soup Company in the States so a line of supply to North America should be a cinch. Sign up Dame Edna for the marketing campaign and watch the moolah roll in.

Caramello Koalas

Cadbury already makes Caramello bar in the US but everyone knows chocolate tastes better in the form of a super chilled koala with fuzzy ears and a pot belly. Dust off that old commercial featuring Donovan's Mellow Yellow reworked to sell caramel-filled marsupials and American stoners will be hooked.

Monaco Bar

Peter's glamorously named ice-cream sanger from Down Under is a recipe for success in Uncle Sam. The Golden Gaytime, Rainbow Billabong and Lemonade Icy Pole might have a greater sense of Aussie identity but Americans really, really love ice-cream sandwiches. This is the country that invented the chipwich – an ice-cream sandwich made with chocolate chip cookies and rolled in more chocolate.

Fantales

This chewy caramel fudge treat wrapped in a film star's biography made its debut in 1930, just after the "talkies" arrived in Australian movie theatres and anything with Greta Garbo's name on it was a licence to print money. In the celebrity-obsessed US, how are Allen's Fantales not stocked in every supermarket and 7-Eleven?

Anzac biscuits

Did you know that Subway tried to sell a version of the Anzac biscuit in Australian stores a decade ago? The footlong franchise used American cookie dough instead of the original Anzac recipe of oatmeal, treacle, bicarb soda and butter. The traditional recipe is protected by Australian federal law and Subway had to remove its version of the biscuit when it couldn't cost-effectively replicate the original. Melbourne's Modern Baking Company is endorsed by the RSL to make Anzac biscuits under the Unibic brand and a percentage of profits is used to support past and present members of the Australian Defence Forces and their families. US sales of the golden syrupy treat would be a great benefit to the RSL. The most difficult part of getting them on the US market will be explaining to Americans that they're Anzac biscuits and never, ever "cookies".

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