consider that the main ingredient of the cookies is SugarThe wholesale price of sugar is about 27 cents/pound. It's hard to believe that the cost of the sugar affects the profitability of Oreo's very much.
It's more likely that it is the same as most products - the ingredients/components contribute very little to production cost while infrastructure, manufacturing, R&D and labor make up most of the expense.
We have these debates and some are very confident that plants move for the reasons they believe to be the cause. But we seldom have any actual cost figures to go on other than comparative labor costs in various nations.
Sugar wholesales for $.27 per pound. You know Nabisco and other large users buy it by the carload. How much sugar can be in a pack of Oreos that retail for around $3.00?
There are always several areas where companies save when moving to a cheap labor nation, but I'd bet that labor and labor overheads are the biggest savings for most all firms, including those making cookies and candy.