FAIRTRADE CHOCOLATE
DUBBLE AND DIVINE
When you buy Dubble and Divine, you know that the 45,000 cocoa farmers of the Kuapa Kokoo Co-operative in Ghana (West Africa) are guaranteed a fair and stable price The price is set at about £56 per sack of cocoa by an independent body called the Fairtrade Labelling Organisation. Also, because Kuapa Kokoo is a co-operative of farmers, farmers can get a better price for their cocoa – read more about this in the Dubble Story section. for their crop. This means that farming communities can cover their costs and plan for the future. Also, Kuapa Kokoo farmers are never cheated Cocoa farmers are sometimes cheated when they sell their cocoa to non-Fairtrade buyers, who fix the weighing scales to show a lower reading than the actual weight of their cocoa beans. The recorder for Kuapa Kokoo, who weighs the cocoa, can be trusted because s/he is elected by the Kuapa Kokoo farmers. Farmers can check the weighing scales at anytime. when their cocoa is weighed at the scales.
CONVENTIONAL CHOC
Big chocolate companies try to maximise profit for their shareholders Shareholders are the owners of a business. They have a say in how a business is run, and earn money if the business makes profit. by keeping their production costs low. Because they buy literally mountains of cocoa beans, big chocolate companies have buying power There are a few big chocolate companies who buy most of the world’s cocoa. This means they can negotiate a lower price and they can also stockpile cocoa beans when the price of cocoa is low.; this means they can drive down the cost of buying the cocoa beans from the farmers. But the company The Day Chocolate Company is the first farmer-owned chocolate company in the UK. It means that farmers in Ghana have a say in how the chocolate is produced and sold in the UK and a share in the profits. Dubble and Divine choc will always have the interests of cocoa farmers at heart! that makes Dubble and Divine is different! Read more in the Dubble Story section
On top of the Fairtrade price, Kuapa Kokoo also gets an extra bit of money called the ‘social premium’, to spend on community projects like clean water wells, medical supplies and new schools which help the whole community.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Life is unstable for cocoa farmers who sell their cocoa to non-Fairtrade companies. Farmers don’t know how much they are going to get paidThe price changes every day because of the world market. The world market price is affected by loads of things: the buying power of big chocolate companies, a sophisticated global internet trading business called the ‘Futures Industry’ and even the weather! Check out the latest world market price for cocoa at www.icco.org each harvest, and the money they receive often falls below what it costs the farmer to grow the cocoa. If you get pocket money, imagine if the amount changed each week, it would mean you couldn’t plan for what you needed to buy.