After promising to source fairtrade beans for its flagship Dairy Milk bar, Cadbury made good. On July 21, the first Fairtrade Dairy Milk bars started coming off the production line in Bourneville. Within days, these bars will appear in shops all over the UK and Ireland. It’s the first time that a mainstream chocolate brand has switched to fairtrade.
According to Public Agenda in Accra, Cadbury has committed to selling the fairtrade bar at the same price as the non-fairtrade version before. The speed with which the transition was implement speaks well for Cadbury’s commitment to fairtrade and a better life for thousands of cocoa farmers in Ghana and other parts of the world.
The amount of fairtrade beans exported from Ghana will increase from 5,000 tons to 15,000 tons. The social premium derived from this increase will amount to $1.5 million. A significant amount to be reinvested into cocoa farming communities. In addition, Cadbury has pledged to spend some $45 million over the next ten years to support sustainable cocoa farming in Ghana, India and Indonesia.
We can only hope that Dairy Milk bars in the rest of the world will also switch to fairtrade beans over time.
It’s great to see Cadbury’s doing the right thing!
Fair trade may not be the solution to end poverty in the developing world, but it certainly has done more than alternative ideas or movements. Unfortunately, the credit crisis has adversely affected the fair trade movement. Just like businesses in the North, fair trade businesses in the developing world need access to fair financing for such things as overcoming temporary shortfalls in cash flow or term loans for capital equipment.
Unfortunately there are few (if any) financing options available and as a result we are starting to see seemingly vibrant fair trade businesses beginning to fail.
Shared Interest is a co-operative lending society and world’s only 100% fair trade lender that aims to reduce poverty in the world by providing fair and just financial services. We work with fair trade businesses all over the world, both producers and buyers, providing credit to help them trade and develop. If you would like to learn how you can invest in fair trade, I would like to encourage you to visit our website or send me an email.