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Compassion applauds Cadbury Australia's Fairtrade announcement

International child advocacy and development organisation Compassion has hailed Cadbury's announcement today of a timeline for its Australian Cadbury Dairy Milk range to be certified 'Fairtrade', as being a major step forward in eliminating cruel and exploitative child labour from the global cocoa industry.

Compassion's CEO Paul O'Rourke says “the timetable announced today means Cadbury has committed to having over 60% of its product range guaranteed free of trafficked or exploitative child labour, as well as offering cocoa producers fair minimum wages for their produce, by early 2010. Under Fairtrade certification families involved in cocoa production receive a better deal and can provide greater opportunities for their children to develop in a healthier manner”.

“Of course we want to see 100% of cocoa sold in Australian chocolate products certified as Fairtrade, but we can't tell you how pleased we are that Cadbury-Australia's most popular chocolate manufacturer-has made this commitment today. This is a major step forward and a big day for children in places like Ghana, West Africa”.

The announcement follows similar moves in Ireland and the UK, where Fairtrade Cadbury products have hit supermarket shelves in recent weeks. When Australian and New Zealand Cadbury Dairy Milk products are Fairtrade in early 2010, the combined global sales will quadruple the amount of Fairtrade cocoa sales from Ghana, from 5,000 tonnes in 2008 to 20,000 tonnes in 2010.

Paul O'Rourke said “Compassion, alongside campaign groups such as Stop the Traffik, has been in dialogue with Cadbury over this issue for some time. We congratulate them for making the significant necessary investment-as well as having the sense of corporate responsibility-to take this step. We also applaud the fact that they have chosen the ethically stringent Fairtrade certification process over options like Rainforest Alliance, which focuses on environmental sustainability but can improve in the areas of protecting children and providing communities with fairer wages”.

This brings Fairtrade very much into the mainstream, according to Compassion. “We call on other chocolate and confectionary manufacturers to follow Cadbury's lead and thereby guarantee that children are not being exploited or trafficked in the production of their products. We also strongly encourage Australian consumers to take a stand for children and only purchase Fairtrade chocolate”.

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