Check out Chris Wheal’s take on Nestlé’s decision to use fairtrade cocoa for a small part of its Kit Kat production.
UK’s Kit Kat to go Fairtrade
Nestlé, the global food giant, announced that, starting in 2010, its Kit Kat bar in the UK will be made with fairtrade chocolate. In doing so, Nestlé is following the example set by Cadbury earlier this year. According to the BBC, Nestlé sells about 1 billion Kit Kats a year in the UK. The beneficiaries of this move will be the cocoa farmers in the Côte d’Ivoire who stand to receive hundreds of thousands pounds as a result of the decision as estimated by Harriet Lamb of the UK’s Fairtrade Foundation.
Ghana Cocoa Board Increases Producer Prices
Ghana’s Finance Minister Dr Kwabena Duffuor today announced the new cocoa producer price for the 2009-10 season. Farmers will receive GH¢2,208 ($1,511) per ton or GH¢138 ($94.50) per bag of cocoa. That’s a 35 percent increase over last year’s producer prices and about 71 percent of the FOB price of cocoa. With the current cocoa prices hovering around $3,300 per ton, I’m not sure how the 71 percent number was calculated. But the report indicated that the new price is the highest price ever paid to farmers.
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Guest Blogging at Divine
I’m quite honored that Divine Chocolate in the UK invited me to write a guest contribution for their blog.
Kraft Seeks to Expand Food Empire
Kraft Foods, the U.S. food products giant, has made a hostile bid to take over Cadbury Plc. after Cadbury’s board rejected a Kraft offer of £10.2 billion. Predictably, Cadbury’s share prices rose while Kraft’s fell as shareholders on the respective sides hope for a battle of bids. Kraft’s CEO implied that Cadbury had limited growth potential on its own while, in combination with Kraft, it would be part of a “global powerhouse” of snack foods and confectionery.
