Try Something Yummy from The Fairtrade Easter Bunny!

Indulge yourself with some of the egg-citing new products on offer…

Everyone loves a special chocolate treat at Easter and this year the range carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark is bigger than ever. With more mouth-watering gifts to choose from, you can enjoy a delicious Fairtrade Easter aware that your chocolate choice is making a difference to the lives of some of the world’s poorest cocoa and sugar farmers and their families. Meanwhile the Fairtrade Foundation is calling on more companies to increase their Fairtrade chocolate offer.

For a sophisticated egg look for the Dark Divine Chocolate Easter Egg made from 70% cocoa, available from Waitrose, Morrisons, Oxfam shops and independent wholefood stores. Each egg is made from delicious dark chocolate and, better still, comes with Divine Chocolate Brazils tucked inside (RRP £4.99). For a fun Fairtrade Easter egg hunt, use a packet of Divine gold-wrapped mini eggs made from dark or milk chocolate available in 200g and 250g bags (RRP £2.99 and £3.49). Another way of bringing a smile to the face of young children is the Dubble Chocolate Easter Egg from Waitrose, Oxfam and independent stores (RRP £2.99). This is made from smooth milk chocolate and contains a crunchy Dubble Chocolate Bar carrying the Comic Relief logo. Find out more about Divine Chocolate and its products at www.divinechocolate.com.

Traidcraft Chocolate Mini Eggs (RRP £9.60) will also appeal to children. The milk 100g chocolate treats come in packs of six. Or for a more sophisticated palate, try a variety pack of Traidcraft's Fairtrade Chocolate Confections which includes Yoghurt-coated Raisins, Chocolate-coated , Raisins, Chocolate Brazil Nuts, Chocolate Ginger, Chocolate-coated Peanuts, Chocolate Honeycomb (RRP £8.70). More information from www.traidcraftshop.co.uk.

Visit Co-op stores for The Co-operative Truly Irresistible Fairtrade Belgian Milk Chocolate Egg with Selected Chocolates (RRP £6.99) and 95g packs of Co-operative Fairtrade Milk Chocolate Speckled Eggs (RRP 89p). More information is available from www.co-op.co.uk or call the Co-op Customer Careline on (freephone) 0800 0686 727.
New for Easter 2007, check out Sainsbury’s Fairtrade Chocolate Cocoa Pod - an Easter egg with a difference as it comes in the shape of chocolate cocoa pod (RRP £3.50)!

The perfect gift for all the family, Green & Black’s Maya Gold delicious Easter Egg gift set is the ultimate chocolate collection– and also happens to be the first UK product to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark since 1994. Green and Black's Maya Gold chocolate is a blend of bittersweet dark chocolate, refreshing orange, warm cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. Containing a Maya Gold Easter egg, four small bars, a box of 27 individually wrapped bite-sized pieces and the aromatic, cocoa-rich drink of Maya Hot Chocolate, the pack includes 1x 110g Maya Gold Fairtrade Easter Egg, 4 x 35g Maya Gold Fairtrade Chocolate Bar, 1x 150g Fairtrade Organic Hot Chocolate, 1 x 120g 27 Piece Maya Gold Squares (RRP £15).

The Fairtrade Foundation recently announced that sales of products carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark in the UK rose by 46% from 2005 to 2006, reaching £300m. This means that more and more farmers and their families benefit from the fair deal guaranteed by the Mark.

But whilst sales of Fairtrade products continue to soar, change is still not happening quickly enough for millions of the world’s poorest farmers who remain trapped in ‘trade poverty’.
At one cocoa co-operative Kuapa Kokoo in Ghana, a co-operative union of over 1,000 village societies, representing about 49,000 farmers, they currently sell just 3% of their crop to the Fairtrade market each year.
Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation, says: “It’s fantastic that the range of Fairtrade products for Easter is growing in size and popularity. The success of Fairtrade means more farmers are able to sell more of their produce under Fairtrade terms, strengthening their organisations, building long-term relationships and increasing benefits to their communities. That’s why FTF is calling on more of the chocolate companies to sell more Fairtrade.

“But the road to our destination is still long and hard and only if market demand increases can more farmers enter better terms of trade. This is why the Fairtrade Foundation is calling on more companies to sell more products made from Fairtrade cocoa and sugar this Easter. It’s important to look for the FAIRTRADE Mark and ensure a sweeter deal for farmers during this time of celebration.”

Comfort Kwaasibea, cocoa farmer from Kuapa Kokoo says: "Through Fairtrade and Kuapa we now have a lot of progress. We have good drinking water, toilet facilities, and schools. Kuapa pay the farmers on time and the weighing scales are accurate - there is no cheating which there was before Fairtrade.”

In the UK, there are currently more than 2,500 products in shops, cafés and the catering sector carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark including coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, fresh fruit, snacks and biscuits, sugar, nuts, honey, fruit juices and smoothies, wine, flowers, footballs, and cotton products. To find out more about Fairtrade Easter products available from a variety of companies and Fairtrade generally, visit www.fairtrade.org.uk.

Notes to Editor
For more information please contact Eileen Maybin or Martine Julseth at the Fairtrade Foundation at eileen.maybin@fairtrade.org.uk or martine.julseth@fairtrade.org.uk; or call 020 7440 7695.

1. The FAIRTRADE Mark is an independent consumer label which appears on products as a guarantee that disadvantaged producers are getting a better deal. Today, more than 5 million people - farmers, workers and their families - across 58 developing countries benefit from the international Fairtrade system. The Fairtrade Foundation is an independent certification body that certifies use of the FAIRTRADE Mark on products that meet international Fairtrade standards.

2. Harriet Lamb, Director of the Fairtrade Foundation gave evidence on the first day of an inquiry by the International Development Committee into fair trade and development. The inquiry is examining how effective fair trade is in reducing poverty and how donors – in particular the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) – can support fair trade in their development assistance.


The Fairtrade Foundation,
Room 204, 16 Baldwin’s Gardens,
London EC1N 7RJ.

Tel: 020 7405 5942
Fax: 020 7405 5943
Web: www.fairtrade.org.uk