Indulge in Chocolate Week with Fairtrade
Indulge in Chocolate Week with Fairtrade
The sixth year of Chocolate Week sponsored by Fairtrade chocolate company Divine Chocolate, 12-18 October, is upon us. The UK population consumes £37.5m worth of Fairtrade chocolate per year. This amounts to a staggering 3m kilos of Fairtrade chocolate at an average of 500g per person per year. The popularity of Fairtrade chocolate has risen year on year by 6% and in quarter one of this year we have seen a 5% rise like for like from 2008.
One of the first Fairtrade chocolate products to go on shelf was Green and Black’s Maya Gold chocolate bar 15 years ago, Divine milk chocolate followed shortly after along with other major chocolate brands. There is a plethora of Fairtrade chocolate products, a total of 480, out there from delicious speciality hand made truffles to chocolate bars, advent calendars and much more.
Indulge yourself or treat loved ones to Divine Chocolate’s white chocolate and strawberry truffles, Traidcraft’s chocolate gift pack or Oxfam’s Grand Marnier truffles gift box to list but three of the many Fairtrade chocolate gift packs available. Tuck yourself in at night with Cafédirect’s award winning drinking chocolate from San Cristobal in the Dominican Republic. Or maybe you would rather create your own beautiful chocolate desserts? Visit our recipe page at www.fairtrade.org.uk/products/recipes.aspx or Divine’s at www.divinechocolate.com/recipes/desserts.aspx and cook up a storm in the kitchen with top tips from their professional chocolatiers.
When you do enjoy Fairtrade chocolate this Chocolate Week, the chances are some of the cocoa will have been lovingly grown in Ghana by the Kuapa Kokoo co-operative. First certified in 1995, Kuapa Kokoo has nearly 50,000 members, one in three of which are women, tending family farms about the size of about six football pitches. The Fairtrade premium they earn has been invested in many different community projects such as building wells for drinking water, public toilets, and a mobile clinic to visit member’s villages. They’ve also invested in training in leadership and management and set up some other ways for women especially to earn more money, making soap and palm oil, milling corn and farming snails.
Comfort Kwaasibea, one of the many cocoa farmers says: ‘Fairtrade is a good thing. Things you take for granted may be hard to come by in Ghana. Fairtrade is good to the farmer and makes us happy. We would like to sell more cocoa to Fairtrade so more farmers can taste a better life.’
An estimated 14 million people in the developing world depend on cocoa production for their livelihoods in 30 different countries.
Show your support for Kuapa Kokoo and other Fairtrade certified cocoa farming co-operatives in the developing world by taking part in Chocolate Week this year. There are loads of exciting and fun activities going on through the week - try some of Divines delicious offerings at Liberty chocolate shop, or head over to Harrods where some of the world’s top chocolatiers will be hosting tastings and other events, visit the website at www.chocolate-week.co.uk.
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Notes to Editors
1. The FAIRTRADE Mark is a certification mark and a registered trademark of Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO) of which the Fairtrade Foundation is the UK member. The Fairtrade Foundation is an independent certification body which licenses the use of the FAIRTRADE Mark on products which meet international Fairtrade standards. This independent consumer label is now recognised by 72% of UK consumers and appears on products as a guarantee that disadvantaged producers are getting a better deal. Today, more than 7.5 million people – farmers, workers and their families – across 58 developing countries benefit from the international Fairtrade system.
2. Over 4,500 products have been licensed to carry the FAIRTRADE Mark including coffee, tea, herbal teas, chocolate, cocoa, sugar, bananas, grapes, pineapples, mangoes, avocados, apples, pears, plums, grapefruit, lemons, oranges, satsumas, clementines, mandarins, lychees, coconuts, dried fruit, juices, smoothies, biscuits, cakes & snacks, honey, jams & preserves, chutney & sauces, rice, quinoa, herbs & spices, seeds, nuts & nut oil, wines, beers, rum, confectionary, muesli, cereal bars, yoghurt, ice-cream, flowers, sports balls, sugar body scrub and cotton products including clothing, homeware, cloth toys, cotton wool and olive oil.
3. 7 in 10 households purchase Fairtrade goods, including an extra 1.3 million more households in 2008, helping Fairtrade sales reach an estimated £700m in 2008, a 43% increase on the previous year. There are over 460 producer organisations selling to the UK and by the end of October 2008 872 certified producer groups were in the global Fairtrade system, representing more than 1.5 million farmers and workers.