Cadbury Goes Fair Trade in Canada: It's a Start
Cadbury has made the switch to Fair Trade chocolate for their popular Dairy Milk brand in Canada, joining five other markets including England and Ireland. Cadbury states they are "delighted to have the opportunity to certify Cadbury Dairy Milk, enabling all those who buy it to make a real difference for cocoa farmers with every purchase."
While this is a step in the right direction for mainstreaming ethical purchasing, and should serve as an example for other confectioners with weaker social practices, one can not help but wonder if it is an incomplete move.
If Cadbury was truly passionate about producing the most equitable chocolate, would they not pursue Fair Trade Certification across all their product lines?
It is not uncommon for a company, aiming to improve the appearance of their brand, to offer a single product line which is more sustainable or more equitable than the rest of their line; while taking pressure off of their public image, it serves at the same time as a great marketing vehicle. Companies like Proctor & Gamble and Wal-Mart have been accused of this in the past by corporate watchdogs.
I haven't yet written Cadbury off to merely employing marketing trickery; they are definitely the first mainstream chocolatier that has put this much behind the launch of a Fair Trade product in Canada. That being said, if they can make Fair Trade chocolate marketable with their Dairy Milk label, I don't know why they couldn't extend this to the rest of their products.
At least then we would know that they really believe in making a real difference.
Cadbury's original press release can be found here.
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