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Corporate Social Responsibility
News
9.13.2004 ET
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CSR News from:
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Equal Exchange Raises The Chocolate Bar
New Gourmet Organic Fairly Traded Chocolate Bars Offer Farmers A Better Deal, And Consumers A Feel-Good Indulgence
(CSRwire) WEST BRIDGEWATER, MA - Equal Exchange announces today the
introduction of their new line of three gourmet, organic, fairly traded
chocolate bars. These bars are distinct for combining the famous Swiss
standards for chocolate-making with the sourcing of ingredients in the
most socially and environmentally responsible manner possible. The result
is a win-win-win situation for chocolate lovers, for small farmers, and
for the Earth.
 Equal Exchange, already the
nation's leader in fairly traded specialty coffee, is proud to offer this
line of gourmet chocolate bars that bring the benefits of Equal Exchange's
Fair Trade model to thousands of small-scale cocoa farmers in the Dominican
Republic and Peru and to small-scale sugar growers in Costa Rica and
Paraguay.
Thanks to Fair Trade these farmers receive a higher, more reliable price
for their crops and gain critical support for their cooperatives - a key
to broad-based, sustainable economic development in their communities. The
Fair Trade certification system also guarantees for the consumer that no
exploited child labor or slave labor was used on these farms, and that the
standards of the International Labor Organization have been upheld. This
contrasts to the yet-unresolved scandal involving child labor on West
African cocoa farms, source of 70% of the world's cocoa.
In the U.S., food and beverages are Fair Trade CertifieTM
exclusively by TransFair USA, an independent, non-profit monitoring
organization based in Oakland, California. www.transfairusa.org
100% of the ingredients, including the top grade cocoa beans, sugar, milk
powder, almonds, and vanilla, are certified organic. USDA regulations for
organic farming forbid the use of synthetic chemical herbicides,
pesticides, fungicides, fertilizers, or the use of any
genetically-modified crops. In Latin America, organic farming helps to
provide farmers with a safer, non-toxic working environment. Organic cocoa
farming also protects biodiversity and helps to maintain the winter habitat
for millions of migratory song-birds. In dairy operations, organic
certification forbids the use of bovine-growth hormones and the use of
animal by-products in cattle feed.
Immediately after harvesting, these criollo, forestero, and
trinitario cocoa beans are carefully fermented for six to ten days
to bring out a richer cocoa flavor. This step is skipped with cocoa
destined for mass-market products. The beans are then sun-dried for three
days and painstakingly hand-sorted to ensure the desired taste profile and
consistent quality.
DISTRIBUTION & BACKGROUND
Starting in October 2004 chocolate lovers will have three popular
varieties of the 3.5 ounce bars to choose from: Milk Chocolate (38%
cocoa); Dark Chocolate with Almonds (55% cocoa); and Very Dark Chocolate
(71% cocoa). The suggested retail price is $2.99 each.
The chocolate bars will be available to retailers nationwide on October
1st through America's largest distributor of natural foods, United Natural
Foods, Inc. www.unfi.com.
On October 15th chocolate bars will become available to individual shoppers
through Equal Exchange's online store (minimum order: one case of 12 bars)
www.equalexchange.com.
Since Equal Exchange helped introduce Fair Trade to the nation's specialty
coffee industry in 1986 Fair Trade has become an established segment of the
coffee market, with a reputation for high quality. In recent years more
than 200 U.S. coffee companies have adopted the practice, at least in
part, and nationally Fair Trade coffee sales have been growing 60 to 100
percent annually. The Fair Trade model has also recently been adopted for
the import of premium tea, cocoa, and fresh tropical fruits.
However, America's $13 billion chocolate industry has yet to adopt Fair
Trade, despite the ready availability of high quality Fair Trade cocoa,
and the industry's inability to date to resolve the continuing problems
regarding child labor in cocoa farming.
"We believe that our new line of chocolate bars provides a positive
example to others in the industry, and we hope that, through our success,
these bars will spur others to imitate our Fair Trade model."
- Rob Everts, Equal Exchange co-executive director These
chocolate bars offer a unique, empowering model of global trade. They
represent the efforts of an employee-owned and controlled cooperative,
Equal Exchange, to bring a high quality, competitive product to market and
share the benefits of international trade as equitably as possible. Eight
small farmer cocoa, sugar and dairy cooperatives in five countries, as
well as a worker cooperative in Canada, will participate directly in the
success of these chocolate bars.
Equal Exchange, the pioneer and U.S. market leader in Fair Trade
coffee since 1986, is a full service provider of high quality, organic
coffee, tea, cocoa powder, hot cocoa mix and chocolate to retailers and
food service establishments. Major customers include Kroger, Safeway,
Shaw's, Stop & Shop, and Hannaford supermarkets, natural food stores,
consumer food cooperatives, cafes and restaurants. 100% of Equal Exchange
products are fairly traded, benefiting 27 small farmer cooperatives in 14
countries around the world. In keeping with its Fair Trade mission Equal
Exchange is a worker cooperative, owned and democratically controlled by
its employees.
 (photo at left:
Sr. Serpa, organic cocoa farmer and member of the CACVRA cooperative
with Equal Exchange's co-executive director, Rob Everts, Rio Apurimac,
Peru, August 2004.)
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