Thrillers and Suspense
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.
Here’s a bit of trade news that usually falls by the way side. After opening the border between Liberia and the Côte d’Ivoire, cocoa farmers in Liberia have discovered that they can get more money selling their crop to Ivorian dealers. The difference is significant–$2.50/kilo instead of $1.00/kilo in their home country.
The recession is still taking its toll on chocolate consumption. Second quarter reports from around the world indicate that cocoa grindings, a key indicator of chocolate production, continue to decline.
Barry Callebaut, the largest chocolate maker in the world, has announced the development of the “Volcano” chocolate bar. Supposedly, this bar is low in calories and does not melt at temperatures below 131º Fahrenheit (or 55º Celsius). Ordinary chocolate starts melting around 90º Fahrenheit.
An item in AlterNet caught my eye. Ari LeVaux shows how the new corporate parent of Silk Soy Milk has basically dropped American Soy Bean farmers as suppliers and now purchases most of its soybeans in China. The ultimatum to American farmers was: meet the Chinese price or else. This represents a stark reversal of the commitment to American farmers made by Silk in the pre take-over days.
