Chocolate remains the nation’s favourite ‘pick me up’ and while we all like to say we are not addicted most of us reach for it sometime during the week. Today I wanted to communicate some interesting information that came my way during Fair-trade week in London recently.
I paid attention to this because of a BBC documentary I watched, which discussed palm oil , a huge part of chocolate manufacturing. The documentary led to Unilever telling its Indonesian suppliers to stop sourcing palm oil from Duta Palma due to concerns over deforestation, reports Reuters.
There has been a lot of fuss in some parts of the press about the difference between Fair-trade Foundation http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/ accreditation and Rainforest Alliance (RA) certification http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/. Who’s seal requires 30% certified content; whilst the Fair-trade Foundation demands 100%.
To be fair the focus of the Fair-trade Foundation is to improve the welfare of disadvantaged farmers by guaranteeing their terms of trade. The FAIRTRADE Mark can be placed on products in the UK in accordance with internationally agreed Fair-trade standards. For more on the fair trade foundation http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/what_is_fairtrade/fairtrade_foundation.aspx
Rainforest Alliance Certified farms are required to meet comprehensive social and environmental standards. These standards encompass ecosystem conservation, wildlife conservation, fair treatment and good conditions for workers (including access to healthcare, education and equitable wages), soil and water conservation, integrated pest management and integrated management of waste.
So which brands are choosing which option?
brands choosing the FAIRTRADE Mark
- Cadbury Dairy Milk
- Kit Kat (Nestle)
- Starbucks Café direct
brands choosing Rainforest Alliance
- Galaxy (Mars)
- PG Tips
- Tetley
- Costa Coffee
It’s great to see leading brands driven by consumers like you and I, who are demanding and driving the change and I encourage you to keep buying from both and exclude others! less not forget the niche chocolate suppliers, though, such as Green and Blacks. I look forward to hearing more from you through your comments on this post.
So because London has been declared the biggest Fair-trade City in the world, to celebrate we at Original Thing have decided to give away free Fair-trade chocolate! Send us your genuine request for quotation for anything fair-trade or environmentally friendly today and we will send you:
Not only chocolate but an ‘Indispensible Zipped Tote bag’. The body fabric of this product is made from 45% post consumer recycled PET. Included in the bag are biodegradable and environmentally friendly pens along with a tasty sample of fair-trade chocolate that you can enjoy whilst perusing our catalogue.
Our Fair-trade chocolate is manufactured in Swansea! in the United Kingdom. The chocolate is bought in pellet/chip form from Europe’s biggest chocolate suppliers located in France and Belgium. This particular milk chocolate contains 33% cocoa solids which is a higher grade than Cadbury. The cocoa beans come from various countries from many West African countries like Ghana, Ivory Coast and many South America like Peru, Panama, Costa Rica where the farmers are guaranteed a fair price. Should you wish to have a darker chocolate. It will contain higher volume cocoa solids, which ultimately increases the cost.
Other than chocolate and bags, we have a huge range of the latest products to be produced in recycled and recyclable materials. We also seek to reduce the carbon footprint at every stage, and use where possible environmentally friendly manufacturing and print materials.
Please contact us to see how we can help you be ever more sustainable with your branding.
Founder,
Karl Pearsall