News

Cadbury and the Fairtrade Foundation today announced plans to achieve Fairtrade certification for Cadbury Dairy Milk - the nation’s top selling chocolate bar - by end of Summer 2009. This groundbreaking move will result in the tripling of sales of cocoa under Fairtrade terms for cocoa farmers of the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative business in Ghana, one of Comic Relief’s long standing partners. It will increase Fairtrade cocoa sales for existing certified farming groups, as well as opening up new opportunities for thousands more farmers to benefit from the Fairtrade system.

Cadbury Chief Executive, Todd Stitzer, says, "I am proud that the nation’s favourite chocolate bar will display the FAIRTRADE Mark. I was in Ghana last month and saw how vital it is that businesses support their partners and the communities they live in. We believe that by joining forces with the Fairtrade Foundation, we can further improve living standards and conditions for farmers and farming communities, and create a sustainable supply of high quality cocoa for Cadbury."

"Cadbury’s commitment is breakthrough news for the farmers in Ghana who are very excited that they will be able to sell more of their cocoa as Fairtrade, bringing greater benefits to their communities," says Harriet Lamb, Chief Executive of the Fairtrade Foundation.

Cadbury will be sourcing cocoa from Kuapa Kokoo in Ghana, one of the first groups ever to be Fairtrade certified, with over 40,000 registered cocoa farmers across Ghana. Although they are currently only selling 3% of their cocoa as Fairtrade, they have been able to implement community projects like building primary school classrooms, constructing wells, and investing in corn mills. Now Kuapa Kokoo will have the opportunity to sell cocoa to Cadbury on Fairtrade terms, which will increase their Fairtrade premiums, and therefore the range of farmer support and community development programmes they can implement.

Cadbury’s announcement of their intention to convert approximately 20% of their chocolate range to Fairtrade is the next step in a long journey for Kuapa Kokoo. Kuapa Kokoo established the Day Chocolate Company, now Divine Chocolate, in 1997 with Twin Trading and The Body Shop and with support from Comic Relief in order to give them a route into the UK market. Divine is now one of the leading dedicated Fairtrade companies in the UK and is 45% owned by Kuapa Kokoo’s farmers. Divine and Kuapa Kokoo also produce the Dubble chocolate bar – developed in 2000 with Comic Relief’s support.

Divine is delighted that Cadbury has joined them in saying to the industry that the current way of working is neither sustainable nor fair. Together they have the chance to create a step change, where the very least companies should do is to pay a Fairtrade price for the ingredients they buy, and that anything less is just not acceptable.