Cadbury Opens Up the Dialogue

by Zarah Patriana · 2009-03-05 10:59:00 UTC
Topics:

It looks like Cadbury is starting to implement a main Fair Trade principle besides paying a higher price - transparency and accountability. Cadbury has wasted no time and opened up the dialogue asking anyone and everyone to submit their burning questions regarding Cadbury's recent Fair Trade switch. Oftentimes, people consider Fair Trade to just be about paying a higher price, however one of the principles that Fair Trade was built upon was the transparent management and commercial relations to deal fairly and respectfully with trading partners. So, by Cadbury opening up the dialogue with their customers, I see it as a big step of dealing fairly and respectfully with trading partners - you and I.

The live webcast happened Tuesday afternoon, a day after their big announcement and gathered people from Cadbury and the Fairtrade Foundation to tackle some tough questions from the public. Questions ranged from quality of the taste, the milk involved in the chocolate to the ever-burning question of a full Fair Trade commitment to the possibility of this being just a PR stunt. Here are some of their answers:

What about the rest of Cadbury, why isn't it all Fairtrade?

Cadbury has been working with the Fairtrade Foundation to make this happen for a couple of years now. Cadbury Dairy Milk is the Cadbury’s biggest brand and the nation’s favourite chocolate (300 million bars are sold every year). This is a step in a long journey for Cadbury and the hope is that it's just the start.

What if the price of cocoa in the world markets falls? Is this just PR?

Fairtrade rules state that companies must continue to pay at least the Fairtrade minimum price and the premium, even if the market falls below this level. So any company that wants to use the FAIRTRADE Mark has to do that. The companies are independently audited by us in order to make sure the farmers continue to benefit, and we're a not-for-profit charity answerable in turn to the likes of Oxfam, Christian Aid, and representatives of Fairtrade producer groups too. [Barbara Crowther of Fairtrade Foundation]

I commend both Cadbury and the Fairtrade Foundation for opening up the dialogue and making the steps to making the Cadbury Fair Trade announcement a transparent process. I've talked about the importance of transparency in the Fair Trade movement as well as in general and it is nice to see that a big company such as Cadbury is following the lead of other Fair Trade companies and adopting Fair Trade principles beyond paying a higher price.

You can see the dialogue continue to unfold at Cadbury's blog.

Zarah Patriana
PREVIOUS STORY:
Family Planning Basics, Part 2
NEXT STORY:
A letter from Bettina Siegel, "Pink Slime" petition creator

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.