Belgium and Switzerland may be the current kings of chocolate, but Syrian confectioners believe another country deserves to be up there too, and already they are feeding an international sweet tooth.

"The Syrians have a rich heritage. We import cocoa from Africa, hazelnuts from Turkey and the rest is all Syrian," Bassam Ghraoui, who heads Syria's most famous chocolate maker, said of other local ingredients such as fruit and more nuts.

Syria's traditional Arabic sweets are loved across the Middle East, and its people are famed for their culinary skills, with a rich cuisine built on the abundant produce of Damascus' fertile green belt, the Ghouta.

But few realise it also makes first-class chocolate, with an export industry that is booming as the Syrian economy opens up to the world.

Despite long having had a reputation as the bad boy of Middle East politics, Syria is slowly emerging from international isolation. And among those taking the lead are Syrian confectioners.

"Why Syrian chocolate? Why not? What do countries like Switzerland and Belgium have that we in Syria don't have to make chocolate?" Mr Ghraoui, said.

"It's a big challenge, but the fact that we produce luxury chocolate which is double the price of Belgian chocolate, for example, is a sweet surprise for many people" because the high price reflects its high quality, he said.