Fair Trade

More than Fair Trade! care for logo’s, but don’t be lead only by logo’s!

Unfortunately the cocoa industry is still today an industry where exploitation and slavery and underpaid employment is wide spread. Initiatives are born to produce chocolate called ‘towards slavery free chocolate’ which are very good to create awareness but they admit themselves it is nowadays almost impossible to be absolutely sure to eat slavery free chocolate if you buy mass market chocolate.

The Fair Trade label is a great initiative to create awareness of consumers about the circumstances in the chocolate production industry. However, the label is very expensive to get, so often small farmers can not afford it. Also, if the profits go to the land owners, they benefit very much but the farmers themselves don’t share the profits so their wages are still very low.

The revolutionary vision Mott had was to create a cooperative that included cocoa farmers and local chocolate makers to make organic chocolate right in Grenada. This adds tremendous value to the local economy, creating jobs and also making the end product itself so all the profit goes to the farmers directly.

This is much better than a Fair Trade logo, it goes way beyond their standards.

Trying to make a difference to other peoples lives. An inspiring video that says it all;

 

And a bit more about the darker side of the chocolate industry in general;