The world Chocolate foundation insists that there are only around 5 – 6 million cocoa farmers in the World. However, truly the numbers of people who are dependent upon the production of cocoa for survival are not less than 40-50 million. By the purchase of fair trade chocolate, a consumer contributes significantly by helping the poor farmer to earn enough to support his family and educate his children for a brighter future. TransFair USA has the rights to certify products in the United States of America. In the rest of the world, Fair Trade International does the work. The certification process of fair trade is certainly expensive and has its own issues, but that does not dilute the fact that it is a step in the right direction.
All people have a different relationship with chocolate. The feeling and the favourites have a lot of element of subjectivity in it. The chocolate lovers have a reason to not just defend their own preference but also to convert others into liking the brown thing. It is a step towards increasing one’s passion towards the environment, eradication if poverty, equality for all, green living, sustainability in agriculture and more. In some or the other way, they all are attached to the cocoa tree. If all this is not enough links to cocoa, the changes in the climatic conditions are also impacting cocoa production,
The mushrooming ethical chocolate industry has persuaded many of the big names in the industry climb the bandwagon. The famous and trendsetting Dairy Milk chocolate by Cadbury was made fair trade certified in the year 2009. Competition further pestered Nestle to follow suit and Maltesers from Mars’ to move forward and gain the same certification. They all now carry their own fair trade logo. It does the task of serving as a reassuring label for the consumers. It imposes the fact that all the poor third world farmers involved in the production of cocoa beans have earned a good deal on their output. However, what shows may not be the true story completely. With all the logos in place, it is possible that all the above mentioned chocolates may not have any cocoa beans whatsoever. It so happens because the manufacturers have the liberty to mix up their fair trade beans with the other ones from the nontrade sources and still has the rights to label their product as fair trade certified.
With no guarantee to take care of your contribution by consuming fair trade certified products, can this be termed as “misleading the consumers”
All people have a different relationship with chocolate. The feeling and the favourites have a lot of element of subjectivity in it. The chocolate lovers have a reason to not just defend their own preference but also to convert others into liking the brown thing. It is a step towards increasing one’s passion towards the environment, eradication if poverty, equality for all, green living, sustainability in agriculture and more. In some or the other way, they all are attached to the cocoa tree. If all this is not enough links to cocoa, the changes in the climatic conditions are also impacting cocoa production,
The mushrooming ethical chocolate industry has persuaded many of the big names in the industry climb the bandwagon. The famous and trendsetting Dairy Milk chocolate by Cadbury was made fair trade certified in the year 2009. Competition further pestered Nestle to follow suit and Maltesers from Mars’ to move forward and gain the same certification. They all now carry their own fair trade logo. It does the task of serving as a reassuring label for the consumers. It imposes the fact that all the poor third world farmers involved in the production of cocoa beans have earned a good deal on their output. However, what shows may not be the true story completely. With all the logos in place, it is possible that all the above mentioned chocolates may not have any cocoa beans whatsoever. It so happens because the manufacturers have the liberty to mix up their fair trade beans with the other ones from the nontrade sources and still has the rights to label their product as fair trade certified.
With no guarantee to take care of your contribution by consuming fair trade certified products, can this be termed as “misleading the consumers”
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