Natural products wholesaler Essential Trading has warned the Fairtrade Foundation that its decision to allow Cadbury to use the Fairtrade name, despite leaving the scheme, may signal an end to its relevance as an ethical certifier.
The Bristol-based workers’ co-operative was responding to news that Cadbury is leave the Fairtrade certification scheme to focus on the Cocoa Life programme (operated by Cadbury’s owner Mondeléz International). Under a ‘partnership’ arrangement with the Fairtrade Foundation, Cadbury will continue to use the Fairtrade name on the back of its product packs.
In an open letter to the Fairtrade Foundation, Essential Trading said: “As an ethically-led company who has been licensing the Fairtrade logo from yourselves for over a decade, who have to submit all out certified products to your stringent criteria and forward a percentage of profits required, we are astounded and not a little upset by this recent relevation.”
Commenting on the Fairtrade Foundation’s recent emphasis on working with multinationals like Cadbury and Nestlé, the letter continues: “These are the firms you have chosen to ally yourself with – and obviously now rely to pay your wages. It appears to us that, by jumping into bed with these multinationals, you have damaged your credibility, caused a loss of confidence in your mark and are in severe danger of engendering a crisis of faith in the Faitrade consumer.”
“These are the firms you have chosen to ally yourself with – and obviously now rely to pay your wages. It appears to us that, by jumping into bed with these multinationals, you have damaged your credibility”
Essential Trading warns the Fairtrade Foundation that its decision to allow Cadbury to continue to use the Fairtrade name on the back of packaging – which it calls a “fudge” – “may signal the end of your relevance in certifying an ethical approach to aspects of the food chain.”
The Fairtrade Foundation comments that: “Through this new partnership between Fairtrade and Cocoa Life, by 2019 five times as much Cadbury chocolate in the UK and Ireland will be made with sustainably sourced cocoa, which in turn will aim to transform the future of more than 200,000 farmers and 1 million people in cocoa communities in West Africa, Asia and Latin America.”
“Through this new partnership between Fairtrade and Cocoa Life, by 2019 five times as much Cadbury chocolate in the UK and Ireland will be made with sustainably sourced cocoa”
Explaining its labelling decision, the Fairtrade Foundation says: “… we want consumers to know that as part of Cocoa Life’s partnership with Fairtrade, farmers will receive at least the equivalent value and we will be holding the company to account on this and the impact for cocoa farmers. This is why as an independent organisation, the Fairtrade Foundation’s name will be shown alongside Cocoa Life on the back of Cadbury chocolate packaging in the UK and Ireland.”
The FAIRTRADE logo will stop appearing on Cadbury’s Dairy Milk products from May 2017.
