Fair Trade Chocolate buying guide

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Contents

1 Fair Trade Standards
2 Notable Brands
3 Related Guides

Fair Trade Chocolate

Chocolate is made from cocoa, and a small number of companies control the cocoa supply with very little accountability. Hersheys and M&M/Mars control 2/3 of the American chocolate market and claim they are not responsible for the child slavery practices of their cocoa suppliers. The Ivory Coast is the world's largest producer of cocoa and it is estimated that this country and its surrounding regions employ almost 300,000 child laborers. Yet major corporations stubbornly refuse to pass up on cheap, child labor produced cocoa. You can hold these companies accountable by only buying Fair Trade chocolate. Buying Fair Trade Certified chocolate ensures not a minute of abusive, forced labor was spent creating your treat. Fair Trade companies also practice environmentally sound farming techniques, so it is a victory for human rights and the earth.

Fair Trade Standards

Fair trade is a social movement and a market based approach towards helping producers reach sustainability. By advocating a higher payment to growers of goods, they help workers gain self-sufficiency and give them a higher stake in the products. There are two fair trade standards, for small farms and hired labor situations:

In small farming situations, there must be democratic decision making among the workers. All producers must have a say in how Fair Trade Premiums are invested.
In hired labor situations, workers must be payed what is regionally referred to as decent wages, and all health and safety standards must be met. Child labor is prohibited.

View TransFair USA's complete list of Fair Trade Certified Chocolate Brands.

Notable Brands

Divine Chocolate
Divine Chocolate is a leading Fair Trade brand. You can visit their website to read about how Fair Trade premiums and share-holding has impacted their suppliers at the Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Cooperative in Ghana.

Dagoba Chocolate
Dagoba is working with cocoa cooperatives in Costa Rica to reach high standards in quality, ecology, and community well-being.

Equal Exchange Chocolate
Their bars combine famous Swiss standards in chocolate making with cocoa from the farmer co-operatives in the Dominican Republic, Panama, and Peru; fairly traded organic sugar from co-operatives in Paraguay and Costa Rica; and fairly traded vanilla from Madagascar.


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