OUR LOVE AFFAIR WITH CHOCOLATE!

Chocolate is everywhere
Newsagents, garages, supermarkets and vending machines.
How much FAIRTRADE chocolate have you seen in any of these places?
How many FAIRTRADE Milk Chocolate Easter Eggs are there for children?

The average person spends approximately £1.33 on chocolate per week.
Nestle’s KitKat bar brings in £143 million a year.
Mars Bars bring in £110 million a year.
Cadbury’s Dairy Milk brings in £93 million a year.

However, the average cocoa farmer earns less in a year than a uk family spends on chocolate in a year.

The biggest problem for cocoa farmers is that the market price fluctuates so much. In 1998, it was $1236 per tonne, by 2000 it had almost halved to $672 per tonne.

This is why Fairtrade Chocolate is so important

Farmers who can sell their cocoa into the Fairtrade market are guaranteed to receive a minimum price. However, due to insufficient consumer demand, the market for Fairtrade cocoa is limited. Many cocoa farmers have to sell their crop for a price which doesn’t even cover the cost of production.

“…If all chocolate was paid for by FAIRTRADE standards, then no-one would be able to afford to eat chocolate.” These words were said to us, by someone who works in the chocolate industry. We found it an extraordinary statement for two reasons.
• The Divine Chocolate Company are already working as a FAIRTRADE company and selling chocolate at an affordable price, so we know it works.
• Chocolate is a luxury and not a necessity. It should be sold at a realistic price so the growers can live above the poverty line.

'It is now more than 200 years since the abolition of slavery in this country, however however there is a huge body of evidence that shows that it still exists within the chocolate industry We invite you to add your voice to the campaign to stamp out slavery so that we can all enjoy ‘traffik free’ chocolate .
Together we can use our consumer power to change the chocolate industry.

It is very difficult to buy Fairtrade Easter Eggs in Tunbridge Wells. Few of the Shops or Supermarkets sell them. In fact, if you go into any newsagent or garage where sweets are displayed at child height, there is little or no Fairtrade offered as a choice. We hope that this huge gap in the market can be conveyed to the supermarkets through this project.

What can we do?

Write to our local supermarkets and sweet shops asking them to stock Fairtrade Chocolate bars and Fairtrade Easter eggs.

Here in Tunbridge Wells we have our very own chocolate factory ‘Charbonnel et Walker’. Write to them and ask if they use Fairtrade cocoa in their chocolate, or if they can guarantee it is ‘traffic free’.

‘Charbonnel et Walker’ have a royal warrant, so why not write to the Queen or Prince Charles!

Contact large chocolate companies.
Nestle
Mars
Cadburys

Together we can cause a wind of change so that in the future, Fairtrade Easter Eggs and bars of chocolate will be everywhere and we won’t have to

‘HUNT THE FAIRTRADE EASTER EGG.’