cadbury-goes-fair-trade
Jul 2009 23

Joining the Fair Trade bandwagon?1

Posted In Commentary

Cadbury has officially joined the Fair-trade bandwagon. Does this mean that the farmers who provide the cocoa for the brand of chocolate loved through the U.K amongst other places will suddenly become wealthy? Having lived in Ghana for many years I know full well that the majority of Ghanaians have never tasted a bar of Cadbury dairy milk chocolate, and this is primarily due to the price. It is incredibly sad to think that though the main ingredient is sourced from Ghana the price will mean that it is out of reach of most Ghanaians, and that includes the farmers.

6a0112790c9f2f28a40115712e3040970c-800wi
One has cause to be suspicious of large companies signing up to the Fair-trade scheme, because it is logical that many of them have absolutely no interest in fairness, all they care about, and all they are there to do is make money. Do companies like Nestlé now purchase coffee beans under the Fair-trade system in order to display the logo only  to cash in on our conscience? It is interesting to know what percentage of their entire supply of beans is from the Fair-trade system. Why aren’t all of Nestlé’s products Fair Trade (only 14%) if they really do care about ethically sourced produce? Why now after all these years has Cadbury decided to sign up? In this writer’s cynical opinion they are simply cashing in on their share of the ethical food market.

The Fair Trade badge which was intended to make trade more fair, thus improving the lives of farmers and their families has now been hi-jacked by the very same companies that made it necessary for the Fair Trade Foundation to be set up in the first place. I do not believe that all companies that bare the Fair Trade logo have ulterior motives, but when big global companies who have cheated farmers for donkey’s years suddenly grow a conscious one has to wonder.  I think that the way forward will be for the farmers co-own the company that produces the chocolate as with Divine Chocholate and the producer-owner Kuapa Kokoo farmers.

*Disclaimer: This is the first of many reader submitted articles. If you have an opposing view or would like to write a follow up, please send it to aspecks@gmail.com

1 Comment

  1. Time for democratic capitalism? says:
    September 30, 2009 at 14:30

    [...] majority instead of the affluent few. More specifically, he mentioned worker-owned business models (like Divine Chocolate which we have previously featured here) as a possible component of a democratic-style economic system. This discourse is obviously highly [...]

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.

© 2007-11 Aspecks Ltd. All rights reserved. Designed with love by Kaizen Designs