Date of publication: March 3, 2009
Source: Divine Chocolate Press Release
Unique to Divine Chocolate, one of the leading dedicated Fairtrade companies in the UK and the USA, is the amazing story of how smallholder cocoa farmers in Ghana came to own 45% of a chocolate company. A company that has pioneered the market for Fair Trade chocolate; a company with products in all the major retail markets that delivers profits to the farmers of the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative; a company that aims to change the way the chocolate industry works forever.
Divine is delighted that Cadbury has joined them in saying to the industry that the current way of working is neither sustainable nor fair. Together we really have the chance to create a step change, where the very least companies should do is to pay a Fairtrade price for the ingredients they buy, and that anything less is just not acceptable.
When the team that established Divine first sat down ten years ago, we set converting Cadbury's to Fairtrade as an objective because Cadbury's was synonymous with chocolate in the UK. Cadbury's started as a Quaker company with a philanthropic mission, and we hope that this conversion to Fairtrade is a return to the values on which the company was built.
"We are very proud that through our company Divine Chocolate we have built the market for Fairtrade chocolate in the UK and shown that consumers want farmers to have a fairer deal" says Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Union.
"Cadbury's has set a precedent for what's possible for large chocolate companies to achieve. If Divine can make 100% of its chocolate Fair Trade and create additional value for farmers through ownership of a brand - just think what else is possible in a market as big as the USA when big chocolate companies give farmers a fair deal" - says Erin Gorman, CEO of Divine Chocolate in the USA.
With Divine, for the first time in the history of chocolate, the farmers that grow the cocoa have a significant share of the wealth they are creating. Divine doesn't just pay a Fair Trade price. Divine also invests 2% of turnover in a producer support programme that has supported their democratic organisation and helped them build their business. But most important, for the past three years the farmers have enjoyed dividends from the brand they own.
For further information please visit www.divinechocolateusa.com [2]