FAIRTRADE MALTESERS NOW ON UK SHELVES
22.06.2012 -After the announcement made in September 2011, Mars has switched to Fairtrade for its famous brand MALTESERS®, currently in the top five chocolate brands in the UK. The Fairtrade labelled MALTESERS® are now available in UK stores.
“What sweet news for cocoa farmers in West Africa, and for chocolate lovers in the UK, that the UK’s 3rd largest chocolate brand, MALTESERS, are now Fairtrade certified.”, says Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation in the UK. “This gives a significant boost to smallholder farmers to build their organisations and invest in a brighter future.”
The cocoa will come from cooperatives in West Africa, and this move will contribute in excess of US $1 million in annual Fairtrade Premium funds for cocoa farmers’ groups to invest in their farms, business organisations and communities.
In the Fairtrade system, as well as receiving the Fairtrade minimum price or the world market price, whichever is higher, farmers groups earn an additional Fairtrade Premium of US $ 200 per tonne for investment in community, business and environmental projects.
Click here to learn more about Fairtrade Standards.
Fiona Dawson, President of Mars Chocolate UK, spoke of the partnership:
“We are enormously proud to continue to make such positive progress in our efforts in cocoa sustainability. Fairtrade is an organisation that has a great impact on the ground in West Africa and partnering with them is another step towards our 2020 goal of 100% certified sustainable.”
Over 110 million packs of MALTESERS are sold in the UK per year - over 5 billion Maltesers in total.
Fairtrade works with around 100,000 cocoa farmers in the West African countries of Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. Increased demand for ethical and sustainable cocoa from the region has led to an increase in the number of farmers’ cooperatives that are able to benefit from Fairtrade, particularly Cote d'Ivoire where the number of Fairtrade certified cocoa cooperatives has increased from 15 groups to almost 50 over the past 18 months.
Click here to read more about how Fairtrade benefits cocoa farmers.