Fair Trade Chocolate Fair Trade Chocolate
home human rights no local find frame, full screen Google search web for topic jump to footer translate with Babelfish by Roedy Green ©1996-2008 Canadian Mind Products
CurrCon neededThe CurrCon Java Applet displays prices on this web page converted with today's exchange rates into your local international currency, e.g. Euros, US dollars, Canadian dollars, British Pounds, Indian Rupees… CurrCon requires Java 1.1 or later, preferably 1.6.0_06 . If you can’t see the prices, of you if just want to learn more about CurrCon, click here for help.

Over the last 40 years, the big international cocoa companies such as Cadbury, Hershey and Nestle have whittled down the amount they pay to the cocoa farmer to $0.02 CAD per chocolate bar.

For growing the cocoa trees, individually picking the almond size beans, fending off snakes, and fermenting the chocolate, a Ghana grower makes about $0.50 CAD a day.

That is marginally above slave labour.

If you want to pay the grower a 15% tip, you can ask for fair trade chocolate. In return, you get ultra-rich, organic, top-quality chocolate. There are many brands of fair trade chocolate available.

So treat yourself to some fair trade chocolate, or give some to a chocolate lover to turn them into your love slave.

Lobbying

Cocoa is big business. 5% of the food budget of a Briton goes to chocolate. It is the most valuable food commodity next to coffee.

The additional 15% on the grower’s $0.02 CAD share is negligible. Unfortunately, the middlemen still mark than share up preposterously. To get even a little extra through to the grower you have to fatten the middlemen.

Sources

To find out where to get it from a source near you try searching Google for "fair trade chococlate".

The interational fair trade certifying organisation is called FLO. The Canadian fair trade certifying organisation is called Transfair. They maintain lists of certified cocoa companies. They audit to make sure the chocolate truly is fair trade. They also provide similar certification for fair trade coffee, tea, sugar, tropical fruits, and soccer balls. There is some phony fair trade stuff out there. If you don’t see either of these two certification logos, be suspicious. Most of the world’s fair trade certification groups are in the process of converting to the international logo.

Fair Trade Canada Fair Trade International
Canada International

The figures used in this essay came from the CBC Radio 1 Ideas documentary Two Cents Worth aired on 2003 November 24 and December 1.

coffee
coffee cup
fair trade chocolate laser talk
fair trade coffee
fair trade coffee soapbox
Global Exchange
Java
JustUsCoffee: fair trade chocolate, coffee and sugar in Nova Scotia
Kicking Horse Coffee (a Canadian sourcewhere I get my coffee)
Salt Spring Coffee: certified organic and fair trade
Student Programming Project: fair trade webstore

CMP_homejump to top
CMP logo
feedback Please email your feedback for publication, errors, omissions, broken/redirected link reports
and suggestions to improve this page to Roedy Green : feedback email
made with CSS
HTML Checked!
ICRA ratings logo
mindprod.com IP:[65.110.21.43]
Your face IP:[38.103.63.18] Spread the Net
You are visitor number 17,924.
You can get a fresh copy of this page from: or possibly from your local J: drive (Java virtual drive/Mindprod website mirror)
http://mindprod.com/humanrights/fairtradechocolate.html J:\mindprod\humanrights\fairtradechocolate.html