Fairtrade got a massive boost last week when Cadbury announced that its Dairy Milk Chocolate Bar is going Fairtrade. By the end of summer, the Fairtrade certification logo will appear on all of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Chocolate Bars, as well as its packaged cocoa.
Cadbury’s will certify 300 million of its Diary Milk Chocolate Bars at a cost of £1.5m. This is wonderful news for cocoa farmers in Ghana who will benefit from the scheme.
By guaranteeing to pay a minimum price to cocoa farmers no matter what the market dictates, Cadbury’s will help improve the living standards and conditions for farmers and farming communities in Ghana.
One source of the Ghanian cocoa is the Kuapa Kokoo Union, a cooperative of more than 40,000 cocoa growers. Although they are currently only selling 3 percent of their cocoa as Fairtrade, those sales have allowed them to implement community projects like building primary schools, constructing wells and investing in corn mills. Now that they will have the chance to sell cocoa to Cadbury on fairtrade terms, their earnings will stabilize and they will be able to do even more to better their communities.
Cadbury’s has certainly set a new standard for the chocolate industry by going fairtrade. The deal will do much to boost awareness of fairtrade among the public and will set a new standard for the industry. Hopefully mass-market coffee and tea brands will follow suit.
To learn more about fairtrade, come to UK Aware in April in central London. The Fairtrade Foundation will have a booth there and will have reps on hand to answer any questions. Get your tickets to UK Aware now at www.ukaware.com.
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