Be A Good Egg April 5, 2009

It’s Easter, the time of year for guilt free chocolate – the perfect excuse to give up on holding back and indulge in some Fairtrade chocolate. With a special Easter egg with champagne truffles, new from Divine, and a Fairtrade Easter egg launched this year by Thorntons, you’re fairly spoilt for choice.

Last year Fairtrade chocolate sales hit almost £27m, an increase in volume of 10% on the previous year. For the farmers this meant a 10% increase in Fairtrade premium to just under $300,000 to spend on community development. That extra income, in addition to the security of the Fairtrade minimum price, has enabled cocoa farmers to continue to invest sustainably in their future through tough economic times.

Let’s start afresh this spring and prove that there’s more than one way to beat an egg. With Waitrose, the Co-operative, M&S, Sainsbury’s and Tesco selling their own-label Fairtrade Easter eggs this year, it’s never been easier to show your support for a fairer way to do business. We can make the global economy fairer, greener and more sustainable simply by picking products that carry the FAIRTRADE Mark this Easter and beyond.

Isidoro de la Rosa the Executive Director of CONACADO cocoa co-operative in the Dominican Republic said: ‘With Fairtrade income we were able to implement a fermentation program to improve the quality of our cocoa and to convert our production to certified organic. This improved our position in the export market. The Fairtrade market is a very important market for the survival of our members’.

Heavenly chocolate from Divine
Divine, the 100% Fairtrade chocolate company co-owned by Kuapa Kokoo co-operative farmers in Ghana, adds to its sumptuous Easter range with a new milk chocolate Easter egg with six hand-finished Marc de Champagne Truffles (£9.99 from Oxfam).

Divine’s established Fairtrade favourites, including the 70% dark chocolate Easter egg with chocolate coated Brazil nuts and their milk chocolate version with mini eggs, are available from Waitrose and Morrisons at £4.99. Check out their posh mini eggs too, available wrapped or in this smart handbag packaging. www.divinechocolateshop.com

Dubble the trouble
Divine’s sister brand Dubble will get the kid’s imagination fired up with its classic magic-themed packaging and the chance to be a ‘Dubble Agent’ and complete MISSION: POSSIBLE – to ‘change the world chunk by chunk’. Check out www.dubble.co.uk for more information. Also from Dubble are speckled mini eggs, ideal for decorating chocolate nests or garden egg hunts along with Traidcraft’s mini eggs.

Sweet Temptations and Chocaid
Sweet Temptations offer you the chance to personalise your Easter egg box – remember to request the chocolate to be Fairtrade! http://sweettemptations.com/cms/

Chocaid’s striking Fairtrade organic globe Easter egg truly has a world outlook, working in partnership with Save the Children. Also try Chocaid’s distinctively packaged Fairtrade truffles, available in orange, mint and vanilla. www.chocaid.com

Thorntons, Green & Blacks, Burnt Sugar and My World
Thorntons launched their new Fairtrade Easter Egg (£6.50) to coincide with this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight and it joins their growing selection of Fairtrade products available at www.thorntons.co.uk

Green & Black’s Fairtrade flavour, Maya Gold, has this stylishly presented Easter egg available at www.greenandblacksdirect.com  
Masters of Fairtrade crumbly fudge, Burnt Sugar, offer up a delicious Fairtrade egg complete with crunchy honeycomb nuggets (made with golden unrefined Fairtrade sugar) in milk chocolate. www.burntsugar.co.uk
My World has this pink Easter egg with a Fairtrade chocolate fairy lolly. A pirate themed version is also available. www.myworldchocolate.co.uk

Traidcraft If you want to spring into Easter with something a little bit different to the traditional egg, Traidcraft’s white chocolate spring lambs come in these adorably quaint sky blue boxes. Spring rabbits and chickens are also available in milk chocolate. www.traidcraftshop.co.uk

The Co-operative
The Co-operative continues its strong support of Fairtrade with a range of Fairtrade chocolate goodies including a sophisticated Belgian chocolate Easter egg with white chocolate swirls and a tray of six truffles, a Fairtrade chocolate ring cake and a Fairtrade hollow chocolate bunny in its own hutch.

Make Mother’s Day Special With A Fairtrade Gift March 16, 2009

 Let your Mum know how much you care this Mother’s Day with the finest Fairtrade gift for her and the guarantee of a fair price and additional Fairtrade premium for people in the developing world behind the pressie.
With over 4,500 products that now carry the FAIRTRADE Mark, there’s plenty of gifts to choose from. New for this Mother’s Day, look for heavenly treats from Divine Chocolate or the softest bed linen and towels made from Fairtrade cotton from MUJI, John Lewis and Liv.
Fairtrade is good news for mums in the developing world too – it means that mothers across Africa, Asia and South America who grow the roses, cocoa, vanilla and other products that make the perfect Fairtrade Mother’s Day gift can provide their families with a better future and enjoy a stronger voice in their communities. Through Fairtrade, farmers earn a fair and stable income, taking away worries of putting food on the family table, and allowing them to look forward towards a brighter future for themselves and their children. What many don’t know is that in addition to a fair price, Fairtrade also empowers women to take an active part in their local economy and work as equals alongside men in often male dominated societies. Fairtrade standards encourage women’s representation on worker Joint Bodies or Fairtrade premium committees, requiring proportional representation wherever possible.

Sylvia Ramirez, a banana farmer from the El Guabo Association of Small Banana Producers in Ecuador said: ‘Fairtrade has given us the space to organise as women – to meet and discuss things. For us and our families, for the community and the environment, this is the future; it is the way forward…. The biggest difference with Fairtrade is that before we never had any money. We had to take out loans. Now we can spend on better education for the kids, on better groceries for the family, better clothes. Our children can go to better schools. We always want to get a better education for them’.

Homeware
A range of luxurious Fairtrade cotton bed linen is available from M&S including their beautiful brand new Garden Rose Bedset with duvet cover and two pillow cases (£25 for single and £45 for a double set). Striking stripy bed linen is also available from MUJI and gorgeous crisp white cotton sheets from LIV. For a touch of sophistication opt for Fairtrade towels by John Lewis, available in Amethyst and Pebble.

If your mum’s a dab hand in the kitchen, put a little thought into your present with Sarah Smith’s range of Fairtrade cotton aprons, oven gloves and tea towels, all of which come in vibrant designs including butterflies, chrysanthemum and spots. www.sarah-smith.co.uk

Chocolate
Nothing says ‘I love you’ like the gift of chocolate. Divine’s dark chocolate hearts are heavenly heart-shaped 70% dark chocolate wrapped in bright red foil. At £2.99 a pack they look a million dollars, but won’t break the bank (gold hearts also available in milk chocolate). Divine is 45% owned by the farmers who grow the cocoa, so buying Divine is as good for development as it is for your taste buds. www.divinechocolate.com

For the irresistible temptation that comes with the choice of chocs in a selection box, give her luxury Belgian Fairtrade Chocolates from Plush. Another mmmmm for mums comes in the range of crumbly fudge from Burnt Sugar. www.burntsugar.co.uk

Tea
If your mum’s always got the pot on the boil, treat her to cuppa a little more special than her usual brew. Hampstead tea’s Fairtrade organic peppermint, royal camomile, lemon valerian and rosehip hibiscus teas add a touch of finesse. Dragonfly’s Fairtrade organic Rooibos tea will help sooth and calm and Fairtrade organic detox China green tea from Qi brings health and vitality.

Cooking
Encourage her culinary creativity with the Fairtrade Everyday Cookbook published by Dorling Kindersley and edited by Sophie Grigson. The compilation of delicious recipes from celebrity supporters and chefs as well as competition winners would be a fantastic accompaniment to the gorgeous range of Fairtrade spices now available. Steenbergs Fairtrade organic cinnamon quills and Suma’s Fairtrade organic whole cloves would make a welcome addition to any spice rack as well as Suma’s Fairtrade organic range including ground ginger, cloves and turmeric.

Jams and preserves
It might be a bit mumsy, but that’s the idea, right? Check out Traidcraft’s range of jams including the deliciously simple Fairtrade organic strawberry jam and marmalade. From M&S, and perfect for Mother’s Day, is the Breakfast Larder gift set which includes Fairtrade strawberry conserve and two egg cups with cosies. Equal Exchange Fairtrade organic clear and orange blossom honey really do taste as good as they sound.

Cadbury Dairy Milk Commits To Going Fairtrade March 10, 2009

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 groundbreaking move will result in the tripling of sales of cocoa under Fairtrade terms for cocoa farmers in Ghana, both increasing 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, “This is an historic moment for our company. 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. “We’re delighted to have the opportunity to certify Cadbury Dairy Milk, enabling all those who buy it to make a real difference for cocoa farmers with every purchase. This certainly sets a new standard for the mainstream chocolate industry.”

The move, which also includes Cadbury’s hot chocolate beverage, marks the first anniversary of the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership (CCP), a historic initiative in which Cadbury is investing £45 million over the next ten years to secure the sustainable socio-economic future of cocoa farming in Ghana, India, Indonesia and the Caribbean where the cocoa farming industry is facing increasing challenges.

The company has committed to the Fairtrade certification of Cadbury Dairy Milk for the whole of the British and Irish markets. The move will mean that the millions of Cadbury Dairy Milk consumers will be able to enjoy Fairtrade ingredients in their favourite chocolate bar, while the taste stays the same. Ghanaian cocoa is recognised as the highest quality cocoa on the market, and the cocoa beans used in Cadbury chocolate across the UK and Ireland – including Cadbury Dairy Milk – are sourced from Ghanaian farmers.

Todd Stitzer adds, “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. Harriet Lamb continues, “The Fairtrade Foundation set out an ambitious strategy last year to double its positive impact for producers by 2012, by opening up opportunities for more and more farmers to join the system, and for those already in the system to be able to sell more under Fairtrade conditions. It is precisely this kind of big commitment by a major player such as Cadbury that could make it possible to achieve these goals.”

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.

Last month Harriet Lamb and Todd Stitzer visited the Eastern Region of Ghana. Together, they spoke to farmers about the modern-day difficulties of cocoa farming and discussed how increasing stability of cocoa earnings through stronger farmers’ organisations and Fairtrade certification could deliver significant improvements to livelihoods, enabling farmers both to implement sustainable agricultural practices and to improve life in the wider community.

Benjamin Atiemo lives in Adjeikrom village, one of the places where cocoa farmers will now be working together to achieve Fairtrade certification. He expressed his concern about the future of cocoa farming in the area, saying that unless farming practices improve so farmers can increase their yields and incomes, young people will drift to the cities, where, without skills or education, they may end up unemployed and aimless.

Fairtrade certification will be a further extension of Cadbury’s CCP programme, which will now also support farmers, like those of Adjeikrom, to become organised in groups with democratic structures so that they can achieve Fairtrade certification against internationally agreed social, environmental and economic standards, and trade with the company on Fairtrade terms.

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 a small percentage 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.