Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chocolate Bar Goes Fairtrade

cadbury milk chocolate photo
image from Cadbury

Cadbury's Dairy Milk Chocolate Bar is going Fairtrade. In a massive coup for the Fairtrade movement, Cadbury's will certify 300 million of its Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bars as well as its packaged cocoa, at a cost of £1.5m ($2.1m), by the end of summer. What a wonderful way to celebrate Fairtrade Fortnight.

And what a way to show the world that consumers are still willing to pay the extra bit to support their ethical values.

image of Kuapa Kokoo Union farmer

Cadbury's sells 300 million Diary Milk chocolate bars a year in the UK and Ireland and they buy all of their cocoa from Ghana, which grows the best quality beans. Now forty thousand of Ghana’s 700,000 cocoa farmers will benefit from the first phase of the Cadbury venture, tripling the country’s Fairtrade cocoa production. Cocoa is Ghana’s biggest cash crop and second-largest export earner. So it's great for the country because it will give jobs to young people and stabilise the industry.

Cadbury's chief executive, Todd Stitzer, said he plans to convert the group's other chocolate brands to Fairtrade "as soon as we can do it". With prices climbing, it's a good time for cocoa buying. However, he insisted Cadbury was committed to Fairtrade for the long term, regardless of price changes. According to the Guardian, "Dairy Milk is the first mainstream chocolate bar to be sold with a commitment to pay cocoa suppliers the "Fairtrade premium" of $150 (£105) a tonne above market prices. When the bars go on sale this summer the value of Fairtrade chocolate sales in Britain will leap from £45m to £225m. Cadbury's pledge to buy 10,000 tonnes of cocoa under Fairtrade terms will triple certified sales from Ghana."

One source of the Ghanian cocoa is the Kuapa Kokoo Union, a growers' co-operative. They have 40,000 registered cocoa farmers across Ghana and now sell 3 percent of their cocoa as Fairtrade. With those sales they have been able to implement community projects like building primary school classrooms, constructing wells, and investing in corn mills. Now that they will be able to sell more on Fairtrade terms, their premiums will increase and so will their community's quality of life. Fairtrade Foundation