Fair Trade Certified Chocolate – Rising Trend
July 24, 2015
Have you picked up a chocolate product lately and noticed a small stamp on the package?
It looks like a little person, and says "Fair Trade Certified."
In the vernacular of Twitter, "Fair Trade" is trending. And that's great!
Fair trade certified chocolate is a rising market trend. But, it's more than just a fad.
It's a movement.
People increasingly want to know where their food is coming from, and that includes chocolate.
Bryn answers - Does "fair trade" chocolate taste as good?
Fair Trade Premium
Fair trade certification allows the cacao to be traced all the way through the supply chain.
This way, consumers can easily determine if the cacao product they intend to purchase was made in compliance with high ethical and environmental standards.
Consumers are willing to pay a premium for the knowledge that their purchase isn't enabling horrific labor conditions in developing countries.
The premium then promotes sustainability in the communities where the cacao is produced.
Community cooperatives make social and economic investments using the premium, to fund education, health services, equipment, and loans to members.
The Fairtrade International certification mark also ensures cacao producers are regularly audited to prevent the use of child labor.
Fair Trade Certifications
There are several organizations around the world that offer standards for ethical and environmentally sound production of a variety of goods, including cacao.
I mentioned the Fairtrade International certification above. It represents the largest and most recognized fair trade system. 
The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) operates at the local and global level, supporting programs that work at the farm level, prior to the sale of their cacao.
Although WCF does not put any stamp of certification on cacao prior to its sale, their initiatives are much like that of Fairtrade International.
Like them, many other initiatives exist to make cacao farming both socially and environmentally stable:
Origins of Fair Trade Cacao
Most of the world’s cacao comes from West African countries, which produce about 73% of the world’s cacao. The Ivory Coast alone produces half of that figure.
Other origins include - Belize, Bolivia, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Nicaragua, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Sao Tome e Principe, Sierra Leone, and Sri Lanka.
Altogether, around 3.5 million tons of cacao are produced annually around the world.
Major confectionery companies like Mars, Inc continue to make commitments to sustainable sourcing of their cacao. As the public demand for fair trade rises, there is significant potential for increased impact for cacao farmers.
Growing Market Demand
With steady growth over the past 100 years, the chocolate confectionery market is now an $80 billion dollar per year global industry.
Representatives in the chocolate industry are expecting demand for cacao to increase by an additional million tons per year by 2020.
This increase, about 30% compared to current production, puts market demand for cacao on route to outrun supply.
Increase in demand is due to rising incomes in emerging markets such as India and China, in combination with economic recovery elsewhere.
Global leader in sustainable imports, The Netherlands, has committed to use sustainable cacao for all cacao and chocolate products by year 2025.
Even The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ has gone Fairtrade!
Learn More!
In our chocolate classes, two important lessons include: "Responsible Cacao Farming" and "Preventing Exploitation in the Chocolate Industry."
Learn more with chocolate classes from Chocolate University Online.
You'll also learn everything else you can imagine about chocolate!
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Photo: "Go bananas" by Andrew Skudder licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 /cropped from original
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