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.
The Age Question … Again
I’ve written before about the aging population of cocoa farmers, particularly in Africa where most cocoa is grown. The farmers I met in Ghana all told me that young people rather go to the cities than stay on the cocoa farm. Now a report from Nigeria’s Oyo State confirms this impression.