Chocolate Report PDF - Fair Trade Barrie

Just about everyone
loves chocolate.
But the way chocolate makers source its prime
ingredient can leave a very nasty taste in the
mouth. The cocoa growers of West Africa are
amongst the most exploited workers in the world.
Happily, we in the UK can make a sustained
difference to their lives straight away, simply by
switching to fairly-traded chocolate. How easy is
that?
Linda Gilroy MP

Executive summary
In the rich cities of the West, the battle rages on.
On one side are the world’s biggest
companies, who have built vast
empires on the back of global trade.
Ranged against them, angry protestors
who believe these companies are
bleeding the developing world dry.
Meanwhile, in the developing world,
the growers that feed the West struggle
for life. Aside from moving to towns or
cities and joining the mass of slum
dwellers working for pitiful wages in
factories and so on, often their only
means of improving their standard of
living is to grow cash crops for export -
bananas, tea, mangoes, coffee or
cocoa. Yet the return they get is both
low and extremely insecure, because
of the volatility of commodity prices
on world markets.
According to Oxfam and others with
links to the developing world, things will
only improve if there is a structural
change that will give small-scale growers
more muscle in their negotiations with
powerful multinationals, such that they get
a fair and stable price for their produce.
Fairtrade was set up precisely to
achieve this. It has made a massive
difference to the communities it serves
by cutting out exploitative middlemen
and dealing direct with growers.
Fairtrade pays a stable basic price
guaranteed to cover the full social
cost of production, which is usually well
above the market rate, and also a social
premium on top of the basic price for
investment in community projects.
Fairtrade, which has been supported
by the Co-op more than any other
retailer, continues to grow, but the
Fairtrade revolution will not happen
until it is taken out of the niche and
brought into the mainstream.
This is what the Co-op is now setting
out to achieve. The Co-op is switching
the supply of the cocoa used in all Co-op
brand block chocolate to Fairtrade
cocoa. We are calling on other retailers
to follow our lead in their own-label
chocolate blocks. We are calling on
chocolate manufacturers to launch at
least one product with the FAIRTRADE
Mark in their range.
Why chocolate? The Co-op will continue
to stock and increase sales of other
Fairtrade lines, such as bananas, tea,
coffee and mangoes and to introduce
new Fairtrade products. But we have
chosen chocolate as the focus for
making Fairtrade mainstream because
of the stark - even obscene - contrast
between the pleasure derived from
eating it and the suffering that goes
into making it.
Ninety per cent of the chocolate
consumed in this country is made from
West African cocoa. Where Fairtrade is
not present, growers are often exploited
and cheated by unscrupulous middlemen.
More disturbing still, West African
cocoa plantations have been found to
use slave labour, children who have
been sold by poor families and trafficked
into a life of misery.
Cocoa production is dominated by
small-scale growers, which leaves
them particularly vulnerable. When they
join together, grower co-operatives
can play an important part in helping
them derive the benefits of integration
and solidarity.
The co-operative that will supply our
Fairtrade cocoa - Kuapa Kokoo in
Ghana - is a shining example of what
can be achieved. In just 10 years it has
grown from nothing to producing one per
cent of the world’s entire cocoa supply.
The Fairtrade contribution has already
made a difference to the lives of the
growers. Now, with the Co-op’s new
contract for Fairtrade cocoa, they
can look forward to improved health,
education, water supplies, stability
and investment for the future.
Pa pa paa! is Kuapa Kokoo’s slogan,
chant and greeting - it means ‘best of
the best’. A key reason for choosing
Kuapa Kokoo as our supplier is that they
make probably the highest quality cocoa
in West Africa - and therefore the world.
We believe that the resulting quality and
taste will be paramount in persuading
consumers to choose the Fairtrade
alternative to their normal brand.
Consumers can make a difference
simply by buying and enjoying Fairtrade
chocolate. They can also join our
campaign to persuade UK retailers
and chocolate manufacturers to
source at least some Fairtrade cocoa.

Contents
1 Globalisation: a dirty word? 4
2 The Fairtrade experience 6
3 The case for cocoa 10
4 Pa pa paa! 12
5 Join our campaign 15
6 About the Co-op 16
Acknowledgements 17

1
Globalisation: a dirty word?
PHOTOGRAPHY: Brian Moody
Globalisation: the exploitation by the
affluent West of the Third World poor?
The pillage by greedy multinationals
of the labour and natural resources
of people who have insufficient clout
to negotiate a better deal? Or the
only hope for a better life for millions
in developing countries?
Oxfam and many other development
organisations believe trade can play a
vital part in poverty reduction when
the right conditions are met. Trade can
equally be hugely damaging for poor
people if it undermines their livelihoods
by destroying their markets or ruining
their environment.
In the foreword to the Oxfam report
on trade, globalisation and the fight
against poverty,‘Rigged Rules and
Double Standards’, Oxfam’s honorary
president and Nobel Economics
Laureate, Amartya Sen, writes:
“Global interaction, rather than
insulated isolation, has been the basis
of economic progress in the world.
Trade...has helped to break the
dominance of rampant poverty and the
pervasiveness of ‘nasty, brutish and short’
lives that characterised the world.”
But the report identifies a crucial paradox
of global trading - that at the same time
as being a source of unprecedented
wealth, millions of the world’s poorest
people are being left behind.
“World trade has the potential to act
as a powerful motor for the reduction
of poverty, as well as for economic
growth, but that potential is being lost.
The problem is not that international
trade is inherently opposed to the
needs and interests of the poor, but
that the rules that govern it are rigged
in favour of the rich.”
The report analyses the rules governing
world trade and puts forward Oxfam’s
policy goals for correcting the balance
between the extremes of western
prosperity and of third world poverty, in
launching its ‘Make Trade Fair’ campaign.
The Co-op fully supports Oxfam’s
position that the right path is not one
of ‘no trade’, but of ‘fair trade’.
Although long committed to a
responsible retailing policy in our
relationships with customers and
suppliers, the Co-op does not believe
in product boycotts.
Supermarket brands are particularly
anonymous and are often supplied
by major companies. The Co-op is
determined to make this relationship
more transparent. The choice of
supplier is crucial, if retailer and customer
want to make a real difference to the
livelihood of that supplier.
Products like bananas and mangoes,
fruit juices, tea, coffee, cocoa and
many more are sourced entirely or in
part from growers in the Third World.
4

Conditions vary depending on country, region and produce, but there
are five common characteristics.
Growers tend to be:
subject to massive fluctuations in the price they receive for their
produce, caused by the speculation of commodity traders
in New York and London
dominated by local or regional wholesalers, who are often
profiteering middlemen
disparate, small scale and remote - many living on subsistence levels,
with little or no money to invest in improvements
dependent on crops that are labour intensive and use
low-technology means of planting, crop protection and harvesting
exposed to climatic conditions that drastically affect
quantity and quality of crop.
The combination of these factors makes growers weak and vulnerable. When
prices fall, growers are faced with uncomfortable choices: they want to send
their children to school but they cannot afford the books or uniforms. They need
the support of all members of the family, but they cannot afford medicine to
keep their family well.
Food self-sufficiency becomes the first goal of survival, which can lead to the
neglect of the cash crop, especially where the price they get for selling it is less than
the cost of producing it. If things get worse, even basic expenditure on food will
need to be cut, weakening growers’ capacity for productive work and leaving
them vulnerable to health problems.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Brian Moody
As a retailer we can make a difference through our choice of supplier and
the conditions of supply. And we can provide moral support for producers,
in the knowledge that they are being supported by a major retailer.
We can offer a decent and - equally as important - stable price
for their produce
We can shorten the supply chain, by cutting out exploitative
middlemen and dealing more directly
We can reduce fragmentation by encouraging the development
of co-operatives, bringing economies of scale, mutual support
and more negotiating muscle.
Perhaps the best example of this is the Fairtrade initiative, on which the
Co-op has a unique track record, and which it has supported more than any
other retailer since its inception.
5

2
The Fairtrade experience
PHOTOGRAPHY: Brian Moody
Fairtrade is a practical way of helping
growers establish themselves in the
world supply chain. It is not charity,
but a sensible commercial practice
that emphasises human values.
Fairtrade guarantees a better deal
for growers in developing countries.
These people have often found that
because of their remoteness or size of
operation they are unable to obtain a
fair price for their products. They have
been marginalised by international
trading and have often been vulnerable
to unscrupulous middlemen.
The Fairtrade Foundation awards an
independent consumer guarantee -
the FAIRTRADE Mark - to individual
products which meet Fairtrade criteria
regarding terms of trade and conditions
of production. Fairtrade helps
disadvantaged growers work together
in community enterprises, by offering
a guaranteed better price - one that
covers the cost of production and a
basic living wage.
Furthermore, it ensures that money
paid for the products goes direct to
the producers’ organisations. Fairtrade
buyers often provide pre-payment so
that producers can avoid getting into
insupportable debt, as well as offering
a guaranteed minimum price, which is
above the market norm and at least
covers the cost of production and a
basic standard of living.
Importantly, Fairtrade pays an additional
‘social premium’, under which some
of the price paid is reinvested in the
business or spent on social development
programmes, such as education and
health. The producers themselves
decide democratically how to invest this
extra income, making co-operation,
participation and joint responsibility of
key importance.
Fairtrade has the potential to make a
significant difference to the economic
welfare of a community. In the case of
cocoa, for example, prices have followed
a boom and bust cycle over the past
30 years, with peak prices in the late
1970s and a slump in the early 1990s.
A brief recovery in 1997-98 was followed
by a steep decline in which prices fell
to a 27-year low of $714 per tonne in
November 2000. Prices in 2000 averaged
$887 per tonne, barely half of the
average figure during the past 30 years.
Although prices on the current market
are unusually high, in reality the ordinary
small-scale grower may never receive the
true value of his cocoa, as the benefit
of raw material price increases may go
to commodity traders and middlemen.
And, as one farmer puts it, prices
could “drop down to hell again at any
moment”. It is this uncertainty and
instability that is problematic for the
ordinary grower.
The minimum Fairtrade price for cocoa
is $1600 per tonne, plus the social
premium of $150 per tonne to be used
for democratically-agreed business or
social development programmes. If the
world market price rises to $1600 per
tonne or more, then the Fairtrade
price is the world market price, plus
the $150 premium.
The Co-op is based on values of selfhelp,
self-responsibility, democracy,
equality, equity and solidarity. One of
our principles is co-operation between
co-operatives, so it is natural that we
should support Fairtrade, as many of
these disadvantaged groups are small
producer co-operatives.
6

Co-op track record on Fairtrade
The Co-op...
stocks Fairtrade products in more outlets than any other retailer
sells Fairtrade tea, coffee and chocolate - even in its smallest
convenience and community stores
was the first supermarket to promote Fairtrade produce through
TV commercials - just one element of the Co-op’s extensive
marketing support
launched the UK’s first Fairtrade bananas
was the first retailer to launch an own-brand FAIRTRADE Mark
product - Co-op Fair Trade Divine Milk Chocolate, followed by
Co-op Fair Trade Divine Crispy White Chocolate
builds awareness of Fairtrade via its members with activities
such as tastings, leafleting and conference events
launched the first supermarket own-brand Fairtrade coffee
- Co-op Fair Trade Roast and Ground Coffee, followed by Co-op
Fair Trade Instant Coffee Granules - another supermarket first
was the first retailer to launch fairly-traded red and white wine
introduced the world’s first Fairtrade mango (available seasonally)
diversified the offering by producing the UK’s first supermarket
Fairtrade chocolate cake, using Fairtrade sugar and cocoa.
How Fairtrade helps banana growers in Ecuador
Ana and José are banana farmers at El Guabo in Ecuador. They are married
with three children. José has a passion for healthy farming. Fairtrade
insists on limiting the use of chemicals, and he approves of this policy:
“After all, we eat the bananas ourselves.” But he says it would be more
difficult to sustain this practice without the higher price paid by Fairtrade.
“Other companies don’t care whether we use chemicals or not. The chemicals
make the crop grow quickly at first, but then the soil degenerates. We
farmers need to know this, so we can preserve the nature around us.”
Ana gets up at 6am, though on harvest days she’ll get up at 4am. She
starts the day by preparing traditional Ecuadorian food: herb tea, yucca,
green bananas, boiled maize. Like other local banana growers, their weekly
work consists of plant irrigation, pruning, pest prevention and harvesting
the crop. Both of them were born in the uplands of Ecuador. José was
originally a carpenter. They moved to the coast 10 years ago to be near
Ana’s family and bought a small piece of land. Ana and José own two
hectares of land each.
Ana and José found out about Fairtrade through a friend and joined the El
Guabo banana co-operative. El Guabo, a group of about 100 small farmers,
is one of only two suppliers of Fairtrade bananas from Ecuador. However,
there is not yet enough demand for El Guabo to supply all its bananas to
the Fairtrade market, so members such as Ana and José have to sell the
rest of their crop to Eastern Europe at a much lower price. If the Fairtrade
market grew, Ana would invest in a cable system for transporting the
bananas round the farm, which is less damaging to the fruit. She’d also
put the money towards her children’s education.
7

PHOTOGRAPHY: Brian Moody
Fairtrade now represents over 4.5
million producers and their families,
involving 350 groups in 36 countries.
In the UK alone, sales increased by 40
per cent in 2001 to reach £46 million.
During the same period, Fairtrade
sales at the Co-op increased by an
incredible 180 per cent.
Fairtrade income has transformed the lives of thousands of growers
in developing countries:
Water:
the money earned through the sale
of Fairtrade produce is used by
communities to construct wells and
pumping facilities for basic, but vital,
water supplies. Often the alternative
is hour-long treks, up to eight times
a day, to the nearest river, which
may be contaminated and can
cause disease.
Standard of living:
Fairtrade co-operatives have been
set up in villages where the standard
of living was extremely low. Income
from Fairtrade produce has helped
them to build new housing and
facilities for their villages, and new
hope for their communities.
Disaster recovery:
guaranteed Fairtrade prices mean
farmers and growers can better
recover when natural disasters, such
as floods and hurricanes, destroy their
crops, providing them with advance
funding and secure returns.
Efficiency:
taking farmers and growers out of
the subsistence trap means they
can devote time and resource to
improving processes and enhancing
quality, making their produce
even more competitive against
non-Fairtrade produce.
Health:
Fairtrade helps provide basic medical
care for farmers and their families,
which they would otherwise go without
Education:
bringing growers together in Fairtrade
co-operatives means they can afford
to build local schools, which would
otherwise be too far away or too
expensive for them to attend. Getting
a fair and stable price for their produce
means they can afford to send
their children to school and buy the
necessary books and equipment.
Safety:
in snake-infested crop fields, where
snake attack is a serious hazard, often
resulting in death or serious injury, being
able to afford something as simple as a
pair of wellington boots can transform
working conditions for growers.
Consumer benefit:
because growers receive a premium
for Fairtrade produce, they naturally
tend to select the better quality produce
for this market. So we get top
quality foods to enjoy.
Environment:
in the production of bananas where
chemical usage is a real issue, Fairtrade
development programmes have vastly
reduced the use of pesticides in
Fairtrade bananas. In addition, many
Fairtrade plantations have planted
trees and established buffer zones to
protect the local environment.
8

But the Fairtrade banana currently
only accounts for 1.4 per cent of the
total volume of bananas sold in the
UK. Last year, a total of 700,000 tonnes
of bananas were sold. Fairtrade
bananas accounted for 10,000 tonnes
of these - 1.7 per cent value of the UK
banana market in 2001.
Compare this to Co-op sales. Eleven
per cent of its total banana sales last
year were Fairtrade, and Fairtrade
bananas made up 40 per cent of the
Co-op’s pre-packed banana sales.
If all retailers were to make the same
commitment, the amount of Fairtrade
bananas sold in the UK would increase
from 10,000 tonnes to 64,000 tonnes.
Meanwhile, in the most mature of
Fairtrade markets - the ground coffee
sector, the Co-op has also enjoyed
unprecedented success, where
Fairtrade now accounts for some 20 per
cent of all Co-op ground coffee sales.
Setting up a Fairtrade co-operative
creates a virtuous circle: getting a
decent, stable return for their labour
means growers can plan for their own
future and that of their children, with
less vulnerability to human exploitation
and natural disaster.
New co-operatives are being set up,
but the pace is slow: the barrier is
consumer demand for Fairtrade
produce in the rich countries.
The more demand there is for Fairtrade,
the more Fairtrade co-operatives
there will be. What is needed is for
consumers to choose the Fairtrade
product over the alternative. The
Co-op believes retailers in the UK
could do much more to encourage
PHOTOGRAPHY: Brian Moody
and accelerate consumer demand
and harness buying power to source
more Fairtrade produce.
We ourselves are stepping up our
own commitment through a new and
radical initiative, designed to take
Fairtrade out of the niche and into the
mainstream. The focus of this initiative
is on chocolate - and the cocoa used
to produce it.
We are switching the sourcing of
the entire range of Co-op block
chocolate so that all the cocoa will
be exclusively from Fairtrade growers.
Why chocolate and cocoa?
PHOTOGRAPHY: Brian Moody PHOTOGRAPHY: Brian Moody
9

3
The case for cocoa
Slaves to chocolate
10
On a per capita basis, the UK consumes
more confectionery than any other
country. Of this, chocolate accounts for
70 per cent. Expenditure on chocolate
alone was £3.8 billion in 1999 - 7 per cent
of total consumer spending on all food.
We spent on average £63.13 each on
chocolate that year, or £1.20 per person
per week. Compare this to the average
Ghanaian farmer’s income of around
£167 per annum. That’s less than most UK
families spend on chocolate in a year.
Love of chocolate is a real incentive
for consumers to use their purchasing
power to effect change. But there is a
pressing reason that goes beyond
economics to basic human rights.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Brian Moody
In August 2000, a film was broadcast on
Channel 4, which showed young Malian
men working in conditions of slavery on
cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast. This was
followed in Easter 2001 by a report from
the BBC on the same issue. The issue
drew widespread international attention
both in Europe and the USA. In particular,
the chocolate industry was asked to
comment on labour conditions at its
cocoa suppliers and to justify its working
and sourcing methods.
This created a problem for most of the
chocolate industry as they had very little
contact with the growers of the cocoa
There were two main results:
and normally purchased supplies at a
West African port or on the cocoa
futures market in the USA and Europe.
The industry was forced to admit
that it had little control over the
labour conditions on the farms,or of
monitoring them.
The resulting public pressure and bad
publicity had a direct impact both on
the chocolate industry and the cocoasupplying
countries in West Africa, and
this led to rapid discussions at industry
and government level concerning
changes required in the industry.
In September 2001, a Protocol was signed by the main representatives
of the global cocoa and chocolate industry. In November 2001, the
industry and the US Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Free the
Slaves, the National Consumers’ League and the Child Labor Coalition,
as well as the IUF (International Union of Food, Agriculture, Hotel,
Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations) issued a
Joint Statement. It extended the Protocol commitments by the industry:
- to eliminate all forms of illegal child
and forced labour in the
production of cocoa;
- to investigate working conditions
in the industry;
- to establish a foundation to
oversee and fund work to
eliminate such labour;
- and, by 2005, to provide a
sustainable method of verifying
working conditions in the industry.
This Joint Statement was witnessed by the ILO (International Labour Organisation).
An agreement between West and Central African countries to
co-operate closely in the prevention of cross border trafficking of
children within the region.

Any serious initiative against child
slavery is obviously to be welcomed
and encouraged. But the underlying
issue - as was pointed out by Chris
Pond MP during a debate on slavery
in the House of Commons on 20 May
2002 - is poverty. He argued that the
industry could only ensure its products
were slavery free in one of two ways:
“Either it must source its raw materials
directly from individual producers who
it knows are not using exploitative
labour practices, or it must work with
Governments and NGOs to ensure
that those practices are eliminated
throughout cocoa production. To do
that we shall have to tackle the evil of
child slavery at its root - and that root
is poverty and debt.”
If it is poverty and debt that drives
growers to use children as cheap
or forced labour, then the Co-op
believes the quickest way of ending
slavery is by giving growers a decent
and stable return for their produce.
In light of the high volume of chocolate
consumed in the UK and the vulnerability
of cocoa growers to the worst kind of
exploitation, the Co-op believes the
industry has a duty to substantially
increase its commitment to directlysourced
cocoa. None of the major
chocolate manufacturers currently
has a Fairtrade product in its range.
The Co-op is setting an example with
its block chocolate initiative, in which
all the cocoa will be Fairtrade
sourced from Ghana in West Africa.
Why West Africa?
Nearly 90% of the cocoa that comes
into the UK comes from West Africa,
which produces over 67 per cent of
the world crop. The West African
cocoa-producing countries are
amongst the world’s poorest and
their economies are critically
dependent on cocoa. West African
growers are smaller and more isolated
than those in other parts of the world,
where size gives growers muscle in
their negotiations with dealers,
and they have fewer alternative
crops to grow.
Where governments have tried to
enforce a minimum national price,
traders are alleged to take
advantage of grower isolation and
vulnerability to flout the official price.
Even if traders stick to the correct
government price per kilo, growers
frequently complain that they are
tricked into believing their cocoa
weighs less than it actually does,
since they have to rely on the traders’
own weighing scales.
Why Ghana?
Ghana is the UK’s main supplier of cocoa, but there are three other reasons for
the decision to source there.
Cost increases: the devaluation of the Ghanaian currency,
the cedi, and the withdrawal of government subsidies on
agricultural inputs have resulted in a six-fold increase in costs,
which very few growers can meet.
Ghana’s dependence on cocoa: whilst some other West African
growers produce coffee as well as cocoa as a source of cash
earnings, in Ghana food crop sales at subsistence levels are the
only agricultural alternative to cocoa.
Ghanaian cocoa is the best: Ghanaian growers are famed for
the skill and care in which they process the ripe cocoa beans
to develop the full flavour required for the best chocolate.
Patience and attention to detail is especially vital in the
fermentation stage. Growers elsewhere have tended to
sacrifice quality in order to speed up the process. We believe
quality will be crucial in encouraging UK consumers to switch
from current preferred brands to Fairtrade chocolate.
Because of the Co-op’s concerns about the labour conditions in the
chocolate chain, we sought a supplier in Ghana that could meet our
commitment to transparency and one that was large enough to supply
all the Fairtrade cocoa we would need. We wanted a supplier that would
derive real and lasting benefit from our initiative and one that could provide
the highest quality cocoa available. We found it in the shape of Ghana’s
biggest and best cocoa co-operative: Kuapa Kokoo.
11

4
Pa pa paa!
PHOTOGRAPHY: Brian Moody
Kuapa Kokoo - the Cocoa
Co-operative - was born when
a group of growers decided to
work together for the benefit of
themselves rather than the profit
of a buying company.
Their achievement is staggering: in just
10 years, they have grown from nothing
to supplying one per cent of the
world’s entire cocoa production.
Kuapa Kokoo was set up with the help
of UK NGO Twin Trading, starting with
22 villages and 200 farmers.
Its mission is to empower its members,
increase their income level and raise
their standard of living. Central to
achieving this goal is Kuapa Kokoo’s
belief in democracy, advocacy,
transparency, self-reliance and
essentially a co-operative model.
Pa pa paa! is their slogan. In Twi, the
local language, it means ‘best of the
best’ and can be heard in growers’ songs
and as a greeting between them.
Kuapa Kokoo is made up of a Union
to which all the growers, who now
number 40,000, belong, each with
their own passports to record their
membership and the amount of
cocoa they deliver.
There are then four other sections to
Kuapa Kokoo under the Union’s
umbrella:
Kuapa Kokoo Limited - the
cocoa buying company
Kuapa Kokoo Farmers’ Trust -
which manages Fairtrade
funds and projects for the
village societies
Kuapa Kokoo Credit Union -
which offers growers much
needed and previously
unobtainable credit facilities
the unique UK arm - The Day
Chocolate Company of
which Kuapa owns a third
and which produces Divine
and Dubble chocolate, as
well as the Co-op range of
Fairtrade chocolate.
According to a recent report from
Anti-Slavery International: “Without
giving an absolute guarantee that
slavery could never occur, it is very
unlikely that someone could be a
member of a co-operative such as
Kuapa Kokoo and be able to
consistently use forced labour on their
farm. The democratic structure of the
organisation should ensure that other
members locally all live up to the
centrally-agreed standards, because
they can see the benefits.”
The benefits of Fairtrade to Kuapa
Kokoo and its 40,000 grower members
are significant; from the secure and
guaranteed fair price they receive for
their cocoa beans to the knowledge
they have gained of the international
chocolate market. The extra money
earned from Fairtrade sales is invested
12

ack into the community, into projects
such as water supplies, latrines, crop
improvement, gender relations and
education.
For Kuapa Kokoo owning a third of
The Day Chocolate Company is a
source of great pride, as well as status
on the international market. The Day
Chocolate Company has been
invaluable to them. It has enabled
the company to gain a better
understanding of how the market
works and their role within it.
Ironically, most of the growers
had never seen much less tasted
chocolate.
How Co-op shoppers will help
The Co-op’s initiative will lead to a
doubling of the Fairtrade chocolate
market in the UK.
Kuapa Kokoo currently sells about 650
tonnes of cocoa to the Fairtrade market
each year. The Co-op’s requirements
will increase Kuapa Kokoo’s Fairtrade
sales by a massive 30 per cent.
Extra income is particularly needed now.
The unusually wet weather has led to an
epidemic of black pod blight in West
Africa, which has decimated cocoa
farms: some growers have lost half their
crop to the disease. All this combined
with recent instabilities in the Ivory
Coast and bulk buying of cocoa by a
trading company means the market is
currently in an extraordinary position.
The normal rules of supply and demand
dictate that when demand for a
commodity is high, and supply is low,
the price of that commodity will rise.
The market is susceptible to yo-yoing
price levels, making life unpredictable
and even tougher for growers.
It’s at a time of volatility like this that
Fairtrade really helps, giving farmers
the stability of a guaranteed minimum
price and a long-term contract, plus
the social premium paid on top.
The minimum price the Co-op will pay
is $1750 per tonne of cocoa. Of this,
$1600 goes to Kuapa Kokoo Limited, to
pay the growers for their cocoa and
invest in the Fairtrade co-operative. The
balance of $150 is the social premium,
which goes to the Farmers’ Trust for
investment in community schemes.
To illustrate the scale of the benefit, we
have estimated how the annual Co-op
contract will make a difference to two
crucial aspects of life at Kuapa Kokoo:
sending children to school
(paid for by growers from the
basic $1600 per tonne)
building new water wells
(paid for by the Trust from the
$150 per tonne social premium).
The calculation is based on prices and
exchange rates for the current trading
year, with effect from March 2002.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Brian Moody
Sending children to primary school
Primary education is state funded in
Ghana, but families need to spend
15,000 cedis a year per child on school
books if they are to attend. This is a
difficult cost to bear. The Co-op cocoa
Building new wells
The Co-op will pay the Fairtrade social
premium of $150 per tonne, to be used
for community projects as decided
democratically by the community.
New water wells are an urgent priority,
costing about 10 million cedis each.
will bring in 2.46 billion cedis per year.
So in the first year the Co-op contract
would pay for 164,000 children to
attend primary school, if all the money
were spent this way.
The Co-op social premium will bring in
240 million cedis per year, which would
be enough to build 25 new water wells.
Each well has the potential to benefit
an entire village - village sizes vary
from 250 to 3500 people.
These are just illustrations - of course, it is for the farmers to decide how they
want to invest the extra money.
13

Kuapa Kokoo growers say why they joined
Comfort Kumeah,
Mim village
Comfort Kumeah
is a widow with
five children.
She inherited
a small cocoa
farm from
her husband.
Comfort says:
Before Kuapa Kokoo and Fairtrade
we growers were cheated. People
cheated us when they weighed the
cocoa. We got little money for our cocoa.
The growers’ welfare was neglected.
Since I joined Kuapa Kokoo I have
made good friends who will help me.
Fairtrade deserves its name because it
is fair. We would like more cocoa to
be sold to Fairtrade because it means
a better price for the producer.
Ilias Mohamed,
Bayerebon
village
Ilias Mohamed farms
two and a half acres of
cocoa. Weighing cocoa
is a very important job
and it is vital the person
is trusted by the
growers. Kuapa
encourages villages to
democratically elect
this person. Ilias has just
been chosen by his
village for this position.
Ilias says:
Things are hard for cocoa growers.
There has been a lot of disease
and we have lost a lot of our crops.
We have nothing else - just a little
cassava and plantain. Before Kuapa
we were not paid on time and there
was no assistance.
Pauline Sewa,
Domeabra
village
Pauline Sewa is 50,
a widow with five
children to care for
and a small cocoa
farm. She had never
tasted chocolate
until she joined
Kuapa Kokoo.
Pauline says:
After losing my husband I had many
worries. I had to struggle to feed my
children and pay for their education.
Before I joined Kuapa Kokoo and
Fairtrade nobody cared for us.
I now have money to send my
children to school and to buy clothes.
I have bought a sewing machine and
I want to build a home for my children.
I hope for a good future.
14

5
Join our campaign
The Co-op is proud to be associated
with Kuapa Kokoo and pleased to be
able to contribute to the growth of
the co-operative and the lives of its
growers by switching all our Co-op
block chocolate to Fairtrade.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Brian Moody
We have selected the best of the
best, because we want people to buy
it again and again. But even with the
Co-op contribution, in 2002/2003 the
Fairtrade element of cocoa exported
from Kuapa Kokoo will account for
only a small proportion of the total
volume they produce. What can we
do to increase it?
Ultimately it is UK consumers who will
make the real difference - every time
they purchase - by choosing Fairtrade
chocolate instead of their normal brand.
Consumers can also put pressure on
the major chocolate manufacturers -
curiously, none of whom has a
Fairtrade product - to switch all or part
of their cocoa supply to Fairtrade.
Sophi Tranchell, managing director of
The Day Chocolate Company, the UK
arm of Kuapa Kokoo, works within the
chocolate industry. She is sometimes
disappointed by the reactions she
gets from management when she
proposes a switch to Fairtrade:
I’m often told by the industry that
they don’t think consumers care
about the exploitation of growers
and the pitiful conditions in which
they live and work. The growth in
popularity of our own products
proves they are wrong - the challenge
is persuading manufacturers
of it. If enough people wrote to
these companies and said they
cared, then I think they’d sit up
and take notice.
The Co-op is calling on chocolate
manufacturers to make at least
one product in their range carry the
FAIRTRADE Mark. And we are calling
on retailers to follow our lead with
their own-label block chocolate.
If you like chocolate, why not join our
campaign by writing to the BCCCA
(the Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and
Confectionery Alliance), the industry
body for chocolate manufacturers,
to request that it asks its members
to produce Fairtrade?
The address is on our website
(www.co-op.co.uk/chocolate) where
you will also find a template letter
that can be personalised, printed
and posted (or downloaded and
e-mailed) to the BCCCA.
Or write to the manufacturer of your
favourite chocolate bar - the address
will be on the wrapper.
The more Fairtrade chocolate we eat,
the more cocoa growers will benefit.
Pa pa paa!
15

6
About the Co-op
The Co-op’s responsible retailing
campaign has been running
for the past seven years,
after the biggest ever survey
of consumer views in 1995.
More than 30,000 people responded
and the message was clear: shoppers
want to make informed purchasing
decisions based on concerns about
the environment, human rights and
animal welfare.
In response, we pledged to give
consumers the full facts on products,
including details of who makes Co-op
brand products. A Right to Know
policy was implemented to provide
consumers with the facts they need to
make informed purchasing decisions.
The Co-op has a democratic base
of individual members. Each member
has an individual vote, no matter
how much money they have invested
in the Co-op. They belong to the
Co-operative Movement because
they believe in a wide range of
consumer and social issues. As a
unique consumer-owned business,
the Co-op has a duty to serve
consumers, not industry or the city.
The Co-op has always been at the
forefront of retailing issues, leading
industry and interpreting the law in
the best interests of the consumer.
Among our campaigns are:
2002 LIE OF THE LABEL II
Re-visiting food labelling since the
Co-op’s call for more honest
labelling in 1997, the report found
an alarming lack of progress,
specifically on nutrition labelling
2001 GREEN AND PLEASANT LAND
A strategy for sustainable food
production, including a reduction
in pesticide use and more support
for home-grown organics
2000 BLACKMAIL
A report on parental concerns about
the advertising of salty, fatty and
sugary food products to children
2000 FOOD CRIMES
Launching a series of inquiries into the
ethics of modern food production
1999 BREAKING THE BARRIERS
Co-operating for social inclusion
1998 JURY’S VERDICT
Reporting on complaints and
adjudications under the Co-op’s
code of labelling practice
1997 LIE OF THE LABEL
A report calling for honest labelling
1996 ENDING THE PAIN
Finding a solution to stop
animal testing
1995 THE PLATE OF THE NATION
A report on the national diet
1995 RESPONSIBLE RETAILING
A report based on the UK’s largest
ever survey of ethical concerns
16

Acknowledgements
The Co-op would like to thank the organisations below for their
co-operation in this report and their permission to reproduce facts,
figures and other information sourced from their reports and archives.
Oxfam
The Fairtrade Foundation
The Day Chocolate Company
Anti-Slavery International
Free the Slaves
www.oxfam.org.uk
www.maketradefair.com
www.fairtrade.org.uk
www.divinechocolate.com
www.dubble.co.uk
www.antislavery.org
www.freetheslaves.net
For further information:
Please write to
the Co-operative Group,
Freepost MR9 473,
Manchester M4 8BA,
or visit our websites at www.co-op.co.uk
www.co-op.co.uk/chocolate
or call us free on 0800 068 6727.
Front cover: Children from the Bayerebon No. 3 Junior Secondary School in the Ashanti region,
which was built with Fairtrade funding through Kuapa Kokoo.
Photo: Felix Clay, NewsCast.
This publication is available on request in large print, Braille and on cassette.
Published November 2002.
Printed on recycled paper.