Fairtrade certification for Cadbury Dairy Milk

Cadbury and the Fairtrade Foundation have announced plans to achieve Fairtrade certification for Cadbury Dairy Milk, the nation’s top selling chocolate bar, by end of Summer 2009. This move will result in the tripling of sales of cocoa under Fairtrade terms for cocoa farmers in Ghana.Cadbury Chief Executive, Todd Stitzer, says, “This is an historic moment for our company. I am proud that the nation’s favourite chocolate bar will display the Fairtrade Mark.  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. By working together, the Fairtrade Foundation and Cadbury believe we can get more people in the UK to buy Fairtrade products and achieve more for this cause than we ever could individually. This Fairtrade initiative is part of our ongoing commitment to cocoa farmers in Ghana where we originally established cocoa farms 100 years ago and last year launched the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership - after all, what’s good for the farmers is good for our customers and our business.”
 

The Fairtrade Foundation sees this as just a first step in a long partnership to improve livelihoods for cocoa growers. The Fairtrade Foundation and its international partner certification body, FLO-Cert, will be independently monitoring and auditing the supply chain against internationally agreed Fairtrade standards. Cadbury will also be sourcing cocoa from Kuapa Kokoo, one of the first groups 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.
 

http://www.fairtrade.org.uk