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This is from an email about human trafficking and the chocolate industry. Good practical ways to do something and stand up for those with no voice!





The good news is that Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate bar in Australia will be Fairtrade as of Easter 2010! This means that there will be a significant increase in the sales of Fairtrade cocoa produced by farmers in Ghana. Fairtrade cocoa sales will increase for existing Fairtrade farming groups as well as opening up opportunities for thousands more farmers to benefit from the Fairtrade system.

Cadbury is the first mainstream chocolate company to announce that it will use Fairtrade certified cocoa for a main product line in Australia. Fairtrade certification sets standards by which the farmers growing the cocoa get a decent price for their produce and that exploited child labour is not involved.

Mars had previously announced that all of the cocoa it uses in its chocolate products will be certified as free of the involvement of trafficked people and slave-like labour by 2020 .

The bad news is by comparison to Cadbury and Mars companies such as Nestle have been unwilling to take adequate steps to address the exploitation of children on the cocoa farms and plantations.

Please write to Cadbury using the address below or through their on-line customer feedback at http://www.cadbury.com.au/Feedback.aspx:

Mark Callaghan
Managing Director Confectionary
Cadbury Schweppes Australia and New Zealand
PO Box 6134
St Kilda Road Central
Victoria 8008

Points to make in your letter or e-mail:
- Welcome the joint announcement of Cadbury and Fairtrade Labelling Australia and New Zealand that Cadbury Dairy Milk will achieve Fairtrade Certification in Australia by Easter 2010.
- Note that this will have the very positive outcome of significantly increasing sales of cocoa under Fairtrade terms for cocoa farmers in Ghana.
- Note that with this announcement Cadbury is leading action amongst the large chocolate manufacturers in Australia to address exploited child labour in the production of cocoa in West Africa.
- Request that Cadbury announce a timeline by which each of its product lines that contain cocoa will use only Fairtrade certified cocoa.

What you can do to turn the bad news into good news.