CO-OP TO 'DOUBLE' FAIR TRADE CHOCOLATE SALES
Tuesday November 26, 2002
http://www.guardian.co.uk/fairtrade/story/0,12458,848191,00.html
Supermarket chain Co-op today announced it would source all the cocoa for its own brand chocolate bars from fair trade programmes in Ghana, where farmers subsist on 47p a day. The supermarket claimed the move would double sales of fair trade chocolate in the UK, rising from £3m to £6m a year. The number is still a fraction of the £3.9bn overall chocolate market in this country.
Co-op plans to buy its cocoa from a farmers' cooperative in Ghana, West Africa, called Kuapa Kokoo. Fair trade sales have helped Kuapa fund 102 projects in Ghana such as schools, water wells and health provision - all determined by local communities.
Terry Hudghton, head of Co-op corporate marketing, also threw down a chocolate gauntlet to producers: "If the major manufacturers were to carry just one fair trade product in their range, the benefits for the poverty-stricken cocoa growers would be phenomenal."
Fair trade - a term used to describe sales of commodities such as coffee and bananas - generally promises producers a guaranteed, stable price for their goods, a living wage and a "social premium" to fund local development projects.
Cocoa farmers have had to cope with wildly fluctuating commodity prices on the world markets and "ruthless" middlemen. The situation has led to growers and their families living in poverty, often without clean running water, sanitation and medical facilities.
Britons spend an average £63 each a year on chocolate, Co-op said, and the company expected its deal alone to allow 164,000 children to attend primary school and supply wells for 25 villages.
Kwabena Ohemeng-Tinyase, managing director of Kuapa Kokoo Ltd, said: "We have not reached the stage of perfection and we need to fund more projects but at least we are one step ahead towards the progress and development of humanity."
The UK chocolate market is dominated by Nestle Rowntree, which produces Kit Kat and Yorkie; Masterfoods, which produces Mars, Snickers and Twix; Cadbury Trebor Bassett, famous for Dairy Milk and Roses; and Kraft Foods, which makes Toblerone. All are members of the Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionery Alliance (BCCCA).
Bob Eagle, BCCCA's director of external relations, said the industry was funding projects in west Africa to help farmers.
"We are investing in programmes with the main purpose of making sure money gets into the hands of the farmers. There is a recognition in the industry that there is more to do and the programmes in place are about making a real difference and increasing the income of farmers," he said.
A spokeswoman for the Day Chocolate Company, the UK arm of Kuapa Kokoo - which highlighted the low earnings of cocoa growers - said: "I would question what the big chocolate companies mean by supporting farmers and whether they have any guarantee of price.
"Farmers have been supplying these companies for many, many years, so why do they still live in poverty and why has it taken until now to act?"
LINKS
http://www.kuapakokoo.com/
http://www.divinechocolate.com/
http://www.co-op.co.uk/
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