News
Divine welcomes Mars’ decision to convert Maltesers to Fairtrade in 2012.
Divine Chocolate release:
Divine Chocolate, the leading Fairtrade company 45% owned by the Kuapa Kokoo farmers cooperative in Ghana, is pleased to acknowledge another significant move in the UK chocolate market toward embracing Fairtrade standards. Divine welcomes Mars’ decision to convert its flagship brand Maltesers (3rd biggest brand in the chocolate confectionery market) to Fairtrade in 2012, following Cadbury’s and Nestle in making a move towards fairer more sustainable trading with cocoa farmers. As the first mainstream chocolate company to have been 100% Fairtrade, and prove that Fairtrade is commercially viable at scale, Divine has successfully been the catalyst for change it aimed to be, from its launch in 1998.
Divine is delighted that Maltesers has joined Cadbury’s Dairy Milk (Kraft), and four finger KitKat (Nestle), in acknowledging the current way of working is neither sustainable nor fair. Between them Kraft, Nestle and Mars control the market, so responsibility for how the chocolate industry behaves is in their hands.
Sophi Tranchell, Managing Director of Divine Chocolate Ltd says, “Divine has worked to create a market for Fairtrade chocolate in the UK, and a supply chain at a scale that can deliver for a major brand. It has been great to see these three big brands start to address the major problems in the industry and source Fairtrade cocoa guaranteeing farmers a fairer deal for their crop. One of the main drivers has been a realisation that the supply of cocoa is threatened by under-investment and unsustainable trading over decades. Divine continues to lead the way not only with a traceable sustainable supply chain and paying the Fairtrade price, but also by ensuring it is the farmers in control, empowered to make their own investment decisions, and to use their ownership of Divine to build their status and influence in the cocoa industry.”
“We are also pleased that our long term partner Comic Relief has played a part in encouraging Mars’ conversion of Maltesers to Fairtrade. Working together we all 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 where anything less is just not acceptable.”
“We look forward to hearing more detail about the Maltesers conversion, whether their cocoa supply is traceable, and more about the good news for sugar farmers as sugar is the larger component of the product. We trust that these first moves by each of the major world brands are just first steps in changing more of their business to Fairtrade.”
The $1m in Fairtrade premium that Mars says it will be delivering once the conversion to Fairtrade takes places translates to around 5000 tons of cocoa, a very small percentage of their total annual cocoa purchase.
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 Fairtrade price. Divine also invests 2% of turnover in a producer support programme that has supported the farmers’ democratic organisation and helped them build their business. But most important, for the past four years the farmers have enjoyed dividends from the brand they co-own.
Christiana Ohene Agyare, President of Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Union says, “I am very proud to be a member of a cooperative that co-owns Divine chocolate. Two members from Kuapa sit on their board. It is unique! I do not know any other organization in the world that has this kind of business relationship. People all over the world know Kuapa Kokoo because we co-own Divine and we are very proud of our chocolate company.”.
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