Thrillers and Suspense
Why did Mars and Cadbury recently decided to seek third-party verification for some or all of their chocolate products? Trading Visions, a UK web site devoted to increasing information and education about fairtrade, wanted to find out. They contacted both Mars and Cadbury and number organizations to provide their answers to this and other questions. I was invited to contribute my own thoughts as well.
You can find the all questions and answers on their web site.
Here’s a Reuters report on Kuapa Kokoo and the impact of the recent announcement by Cadbury to source fairtrade beans for its Dairy Milk Bar.
According to a report in Agence France Press, an increasing number of farmers in the Côte d’Ivoire are abandoning cocoa farming in favor or growing rubber trees. If that trend is indeed as widespread as the article claims–hundreds of hectares every year–then this important news.
I mentioned earlier that the emerging chocolate markets didn’t quite live up to their predicted potential. But the traditioal markets aren’t doing so well either. The German Candy Manufacturers Association (Bundesverband der Deutschen Süßwarenindustrie) released first quarter grindings numbers that showed a 17.2 percent decline to 87,576 tons compared to the first quarter of the previous year.
I’ve mentioned the social premium aspect of fairtrade in previous posts. I consider that at least as important as the guaranteed price, the other leg of the fairtrade system. My visit to the Toledo Cocoa Growers Association, though, taught me that there are different ways to distribute that social premium.
