Cadbury’s Fairtrade for Cocoa Life

Cadbury is the world’s second largest confectionery brand which was acquired by Mondelez International (the then Kraft Foods) in the year 2010. Cadbury joined the Fairtrade scheme in 2009 by adopting the Fairtrade logo on its Dairymilk chocolate packs.

Fairtrade mark is a symbol on food products for the consumer guarantee. It is an indication that the product is organic. It is issued by Fairtrade Foundation, a non-profit organisation in UK. Fairtrade helps farmers across the world to get fair price for their products. Fairtrade ensures that the raw materials like cocoa, sugar and milk are fairly sourced by the company from the farmers. It promotes sustainable agriculture.

Cadbury has decided to drop the Fairtrade logo from all its packs by the end of 2017. Cadbury Dairymilk packs will now bear a Cocoa Life logo. Inspite of the decision to drop the Fairtrade logo, Cadbury is willing to partner with Fairtrade Foundation which will independently monitor Cocoa Life initiative.

Cocoa Life is an initiative started in 2012 by Mondelez International. It empowers the cocoa farmers across the communities in African and Latin American countries as well as Indonesia and India. Research shows that the next generation of the current cocoa farmers are not cultivating cocoa because of low profitability and small economies of scale. Cocoa Life would ensure that Cadbury sources cocoa ethically from the farmer organisations which will positively impact the lower level of its supply chain which is the producers. It will also promote sustainable cultivation of cocoa across the generations of cocoa farmers.

Cadbury’s rival chocolate brands Nestle and Ferrero have expanded the Fairtrade mark to its diverse product categories. The officials at Mondelez believe that adopting the independent certification model is a win-win, both for the farmers and the organisation. Hence the organisation aims to invest more in the cocoa growing communities through Cocoa Life. There are certain agencies which argue that this move by Cadbury will result in lack of transparency while auditing, since the universally set standards won’t be adopted.

We can conclude that an independent or in-house certification model in partnership with Fairtrade would ensure a balance of ethical trading and cost optimisation for the organisations.