9.04.2003 ET

(CSRwire) CANTON, MA - Equal Exchange, already the nation's leading Fair Trade beverage company, today introduces their new organic Fair Trade Certified baking cocoa powder for national distribution. With this announcement Equal Exchange is continuing its 17 year mission of bringing Fair Trade to more consumers so as to benefit more farmers.

This high quality organic certified dutch process cocoa powder carries the Fair Trade Certified label, granted by TransFair USA, an independent non-profit certifying organization, which guarantees consumers that the cocoa was produced and sourced in a socially responsible manner. Under Fair Trade consumers know that: the cocoa was grown and exported by a democratically organized cooperative of small-scale farmers; the cooperative was paid a fair, above-market price for its crop; and that high labor standards, including those for work safety, child labor and the freedom to organize are followed.

United Natural Foods, the nation's largest distributor of natural products to supermarkets and natural food stores, is now offering this cocoa powder - along with the organic Fair Trade hot cocoa mix Equal Exchange introduced last year - from 8 of their 9 regional warehouses. This critical link in the food distribution system means that for the first time thousands of retailers can easily offer their consumers Fair Trade Certified cocoa products.

Some supermarkets, such as Shaw's and Hannafords in New England, are already stocking the new cocoa powder. Others, including Safeway, Whole Foods, Shaw's, and Stop & Shop already carry Equal Exchange's hot cocoa mix in select stores. It is projected that new cocoa powder will be available in at least 600 stores within the next 12 months. Consumers may also purchase both cocoa products Equal Exchange's online store.

Equal Exchange also anticipates strong interest in the new cocoa among the 6,000+ congregations involved in the company's unique Interfaith outreach program, where the organic hot cocoa mix is already a popular item. As a result Equal Exchange expects the Interfaith program will further increase the public awareness of this new socially responsible alternative.

Equal Exchange's cocoa products from farmer cooperatives in the Dominican Republic give Americans an immediate, positive way to respond to the reports of chronic poverty, exploited child labor and slavery on cocoa farms in West Africa - the origin of 70% of the world's cocoa. Even though Americans spend $13 billion a year on cocoa products, low prices paid to farmers have kept them poor, vulnerable and desperate. Thanks to recent pressure the cocoa industry has begun to study the labor problem, but it will not produce voluntary standards for cocoa trading until 2005. Equal Exchange's cocoa products enable consumers to support a more sustainable and just cocoa economy today.

In addition to being Fair Trade Certified, Equal Exchange's cocoa is organic certified and cultivated on small plots under a shade canopy that preserves critical elements of the native Dominican forests. Biologists have determined that this gentle, chemical free method of farming helps to maintain bio-diversity and protect the winter habitat of millions of migratory songbirds.

"One of the easiest ways consumers can help to sustain tropical eco-systems is to look for organic and shade-grown products. The small farmers, the birds, and the land all benefit." - Nature Conservancy biologist Jeffrey Parrish, Ph.D.

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