Cocoa farmers are often amongst the poorest in the world, making barely enough for them and their families to live on. Buying Fairtrade chocolate can therefore massively improve the lives of producers in developing countries. A Fairtrade chocolate bar was in fact the first Fairtrade certified product in the UK back in 1994, but there are still many thousands of producers who do not get a fair price for their cocoa beans.
The British are a nation of chocoholics, eating more chocolate than any of our European neighbours, but the majority of this is currently not Fairtrade. Fairtrade chocolate is, however, widely available in this country. A number of brands offer Fairtrade varieties, including Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, and all of the Co-operative’s own-brand chocolate has been certified Fairtrade since 2002.
As well as the issue of fair pricing for cocoa bean producers, child trafficking is also a big issue. According to the Stop the Traffik campaign, a large number of trafficked children work on Ivory Coast plantations which produce over 35% of the world’s chocolate. Their campaign therefore recommends that consumers buy Fairtrade chocolate as a guarantee that trafficked children have not been used in the production process.
You can buy Fairtrade chocolate in all major supermarkets and in many smaller stores. If you would like your local shop to start stocking Fairtrade chocolate and other Fairtrade products, let them know that you wish to buy Fairtrade goods. For a list of Fairtrade chocolate products available in the UK check out the Fairtrade Foundation website.
Source: www.stopthetraffik.org, www.fairtrade.org.uk 2010
