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Eat & Empower

Updated: Jan 19, 2021

Two of my favourite things - eating 😋😋😋 and empowering people 💛💛💛 ⁠With it being Fairtrade Fortnight here are just some of the amazing products that are available to us here in the UK. ⁠ ⁠

It was first set up back in 1992 by a collection of large names in the charity world - CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Traidcraft, Global Justice Now and the National Federation's of Women's Institutes. It is a movement for change, working directly with businesses, consumers and campaigners.



Brands and products that are Fairtrade certified have changed the lives of their farmers and workers. They ensure that they get a fair price for their products, as well supporting more women farmers - ensuring their voices are heard and giving them an independent income - bringing positive change to their communities. ⁠With more than 1.66 million farmers and worked spread over 73 different countries, your choice to choose a Fairtrade product has helped someone's live and community develop.


One of the first chocolate products to be certified Fairtrade in the UK was Maya Gold by Green & Blacks. From there the chocolate category has fully embraced Fairtrade. Divine Chocolate is now owned by a whooping 44% of Ghanian cocoa farmers. The large supermarkets at least stock Fairtrade brands if not using Fairtrade chocolate within their own products. It's great to see even the discounters such as Aldi & Lidl actively using Fairtrade chocolate.







With this movement having been with us for 18 years now, it's great to see how producers and companies are evolving with it. It has set a new standard within the industry, each brand has at least some sort of ethically sourced statement on their website.


In 2017 Cadbury's broke away from Fairtrade Foundation to set up it's own Cocoa Life programme. By 2019, all of Cadbury's products within the UK and Ireland were under Cocoa Life. The programme still works closely with Fairtrade and it's certification body FLOCERT to ensure that Cadbury farmers are not loosing out and that the producers receive the same as what they did under the Fairtrade scheme.


When so many chocolate brands carrying Fairtrade or a similar scheme of their own, it is hard not to support these amazing farmers and producers.




 

Find out what's new at Fairtrade on their website: https://www.fairtrade.org.uk


To find out more about the relationship between Cocoa Life and Fairtrade: https://www.fairtrade.org.uk/Media-Centre/Blog/2016/November/What-is-happening-with-Cadbury-and-Fairtrade





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