Candy-maker Cadbury expects to receive Fairtrade certification for its U.K. and Irish Cadbury Dairy Milk products by the end of this summer, a change that will triple the sales of Fairtrade cocoa for farmers in the African country Ghana.
Cadbury plans to eventually seek Fairtrade certification for other products and for Cadbury operations elsewhere in the world. The certification comes from the U.K.-based
Fairtrade Foundation, which establishes social, economic and environmental requirements for producers to meet.
The company's certification comes on the 100th anniversary of Cadbury's first full crop from Ghana and the first anniversary of the
Cadbury Cocoa Partnership, an initiative to invest $64 million over the next decade to assist cocoa farmers in Ghana, India, Indonesia and the Caribbean.
Cadbury joins the
42 other chocolate makers that have already received Fairtrade certification for their products, one of which is the Green & Black's Maya Gold bar, owned by Cadbury.
Divine Chocolate currently has the highest amount of Fairtrade certified products, with 32 items carrying the Fairtrade mark. Divine was the first Fairtrade chocolate company launched in the U.K. and sees Cadbury's Fairtrade announcement as a big step in moving more companies in the chocolate industry toward Fairtrade.
"Cadbury's has set a precedent for what's possible for large chocolate companies to achieve. If Divine can make 100% of its chocolate Fairtrade and create additional value for farmers through ownership of a brand - just think what else is possible in a market as big as the USA when big chocolate companies give farmers a fair deal," Erin Gorman, CEO of Divine Chocolate in the USA, said in a statement.
Cadbury bar - photo CC license by cyclone bill
