NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The charitable trust that controls Hershey Foods Co. announced Thursday it has proposed a sale of the nation's largest candy maker, which a newspaper reported could fetch more than $10 billion.

The Milton Hershey School Trust, which owns 77 percent of Hershey's voting shares, requested that the company be put up for sale, saying that a possible sale "was the most prudent course of action consistent with its diversification objectives and its fiduciary obligation to the Milton Hershey School."

The school was set up by the company's founder, Milton Hershey, in 1909 to serve disadvantaged students.

The possible sale of Hershey (HSY: Research, Estimates) could be the largest auction of a food company since Nabisco sold to Kraft for $14.91 billion. Hershey has $4.6 billion in annual sales, but controls 31 percent of the U.S. confectionery market.

"Such businesses don't come on the block very often," one person close to a potential bidder told the Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper's account said the potential price for Hershey could amount to roughly $80 a share, or more than $10 billion.

Potential bidders for Hershey include Kraft, Nestle SA, PepsiCo Inc. and Cadbury Schweppes PLC, the paper reported.