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Cadbury and the Fairtrade Foundation today (4^th March) announced plans to achieve Fairtrade certification for Cadbury Dairy Milk, the UK’s best selling chocolate bar, by autumn 2009. The move will result in the tripling of sales of Fairtrade cocoa from Ghana. The value of the British Fairtrade chocolate market will in turn grow from £45m to £225m. All Dairy Milk bars will be sold with a commitment to pay farmers a ‘Fairtrade premium’ of £105 per tonne above market prices. The move has been widely reported in The Guardian and on the BBC World Service and is being covered by a live webcast at 1:30pm on 4th March.

This exciting announcement comes on the heels of the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership, founded last year.  As part of this initiative, Cadbury is investing £45 million over ten years to secure the sustainable socio-economic future of cocoa farming in Ghana, India, Indonesia and the Caribbean. The move will secure the economic, social and environmental sustainability of around a million cocoa farmers. This is an unprecedented investment in the sustainable development of the chocolate industry and demonstrates that pro-development investment in the long-term sustainability of the cocoa industry can be both good for society and good for business. Cadbury are contributing to a pro-development trend which will lead other brands and retailers to identify and increase the developmental benefits of their conventional supply chains.

What will consumers think? The Fairtrade market continues to grow significantly despite the economic downturn. According to The Co-operative’s Ethical Consumerism Report the market for Fairtrade goods and free-range eggs grew 14 per cent from £5.1 billion to £5.8 billion in 2008. Recent research agrees that, despite feeling the pinch, 92% of consumers still claim to be willing to pay extra for a product perceived to be ethical. Even in economic hard times consumers care about the conditions under which their products are made and wish to ensure that workers and farmers in supply chains are treated well. However, concerns still remain that consumers do not fully understand how the Fairtrade scheme works.  Cadbury addresses these concerns by highlighting five key benefits of Fairtrade.

Impactt applauds Cadbury for taking these steps during the economic downturn and challenges others in the industry to follow suit.