Cadbury’s were using Fair Trade Cocoa for generations before the phrase was invented.
Cocoa in Ghana is a smallholding crop, with individual farmers having a hectare or two of mixed crops, including cocoa. It is not a plantation crop as it is in Brazil or Ivory Coast. That is why Ghanaian cocoa is of higher quality, and commands a premium on commodity markets. Cadbury’s chocolate in the UK uses 95% Ghanaian cocoa.
The Catholic Orangemen of Togo, p184
A major reason that Ghana is the most stable and successful of Sub-Saharan African countries, is that traditional landholding patterns were not broken up by colonial usurpation. (White men ?” and their cattle ?” died like flies in the climate here. Wheat wilted).
Cocoa farming has for well over a century provided the backbone of a thriving agrarian society in Ghana. That widespread economic base has in turn enabled the continuation of traditional chieftaincy institutions and other indigenous forms of government.
Colonial population displacement is the root cause of many of Africa’s conflicts. In Kenya and Zimbabwe, conflicts we dismiss as tribal or as the result of African bad governance, in fact come down to the long term consequences of tribes displaced from their land by the British, and being forced to settle in other tribes’ territory.
If you don’t understand that, you don’t know Africa. The idea that the land was desolate before whites came, or that African forms of agriculture are unproductive, is nonsense which I tackle in The Catholic Orangemen of Togo.
Displacement to form vast cocoa estates has been part of the cause of conflict in Ivory Coast. The estates are attended with other evils ?” erosion and devastation of soil nutrients caused by monoculture, widespread use of child labour, and the conversion of independent small farmers to landless day labourers. These are but some of the ill effects.
The estates also produce low quality cocoa. It seems a truth in agriculture that over-intensive monoculture produces tasteless food. Most British people realize that Cadbury’s chocolate tastes better, but don’t know why. The answer is in the cocoa.
What Cadbury’s use in the UK is from independent Ghanaian smallholders, and is the equivalent of wines from an ancient small chateau or boutique Californian estate. They pay extra for it, and their willingness to pay extra has been a key part of keeping the Ghanaian small farmer going.
Kraft on the other hand use the mass produced estate cocoa; the equivalent of soulless and tasteless wine from multiple fields and huge stainless steel tanks. They source mostly in Brazil ?” the World’s most tasteless cocoa ?” and Ivory Coast. The bad taste in the mouth from the cocoa is both real and metaphorical. The estates in both countries make massive use of child labour.
It is a fact that Cadbury’s practices in dealing fairly with small African farmers dated back directly to the ethical precepts of their Quaker founders. I had occasion to prepare a report for the British government on the Ghanaian cocoa industry, in response to concerns about the use of child labour on Ivory Coast estates. I visited numerous Ghanaian farmers and Cadbury’s headquarters in the process, and have met Cadbury’s buyers in the field in West Africa over twenty years.
I have no doubt that in order to rack up the return on their vast investment, Kraft will switch to the cheap and nasty cocoa they normally use. This could be the worst thing to hit the Ghanaian rural economy since blackpod disease.
I sympathise entirely with those concerned about the effects in the UK of this takeover ?” just the latest manifestation of the fact that our society knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
But try to spare a thought for the ill effects in Africa too.
Yes, I still eat that one. And ‘Divine’. Come to think of it, I think dairy products only appeared as a warning on Green and Blacks, and not as an actual ingredient. In the dark chocolate, I mean.
Craig,do you know the cocoa source for any of these other brands? Is there a brand we can buy to support the smallholders in Ghana?
I certainly appreciate the term “conspiraloon”!!!!
Richard,
Well, I expect that the premium on Ghanaian cocoa will disappear and their prices will be driven down to match those of the international big estates. Most of them will limp on, but poorer, and production will drop while farming becomes unattractive to young people.
Other small “Fair trade” chocolate brands do use Ghanaian cocoa. It’s not organic though because of the need to spray against blackpod fungus. Body Shop cocoa and shea butter products also source a great deal from Ghanaian smallholders.
Craig,
Thanks for another interesting post about agriculture in Ghana. Your empathy and concern about the farmers does you credit.
A nice bar of Bournville is better than most ‘quality chocolate’ I have tasted. Some 70% cocoa bars taste like soap to my British pallet.
If Bournville is the taste of Ghana I hope Kraft keep their skilled farmers in business.
did my post asking whether Kraft had given assurances that Cadbury would continue being run as a separate company get deleted in the purge? Or have I missed it?
Phew – a sense of peace on this thread – yes interesting post Craig – my wife Tina believes Kraft will change the source for their cocoa as well – OMG if I had the money I would save a great British institution – Oh boy I love Fry’s Cream bar and you can really taste the difference in Cadburys. As one Cadbury board member commented, “I’m horrified. I just think there’s a cultural imbalance. For a quintessentially, philanthropic iconic brand to sell out to a plastic cheese company – there’s no mix there,” and I agree. Looks like more jobs lost here in Britain and at the cocoa source in Ghana.
An even better one – how did they get away with it?
“My Mum (Dona Evans – nee McDonough) in 1960s Flake Ad.. Slightly provocative but hey it paid for my education!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mYr90nCFZE
Tony
Thanks for this information Craig. It’s been a day of misinformation from the UK government as usual.
I liked the Flake advert Tony, many of us young women ate them just in the hope they looked like your Mum.
technicolour
Possibly, but only by accident.
I don’t suppose Cadbury’s has a binding agreement for its sources? It should be impressed upon their new owners that if they shake the whole Cadbury’s product to pieces, they’ll have a loss on their hands with sales and profits down. They could keep it as a high-end part of their portfolio, and some encouragement in that direction might be helpful. After all, Ford bought Jaguar, but that didn’t mean new Jaguars then had to be built with Escort engines.
Tony,
Completely off topic but I wanted to make sure you received my thanks for these important and crucial facts which I hope are on a question sheet when Lord Goldsmith QC attends the Iraq inquiry:
“The critical paragraph of her letter, published yesterday under the Freedom of Information Act, was blanked out by the Government on the grounds that it was in the public interest to protect the privacy of the advice given by the Attorney General. But last night the contents of the paragraph were leaked, and Tony Blair was facing fresh allegations of a cover-up. There has long been speculation that Lord Goldsmith was leant on to switch his view, and to sanction the war – and confirmation of that would be devastating for the Prime Minister. The Wilmhurst letter stops short of explaining what caused Lord Goldsmith to change his mind.”
Will Blair be muted – or – will Goldsmith lie – We will witness a British Queens Councillor’s integrity ‘in the dock’ – Will it be:
litterae clausae?
or
litterae patentes?
ROTULI LITTERARUM PATENTIUM
Craig,
There is a bar of chocolate called “Ghana” which is sold here in Japan. It’s produced by a South Korean company called Lotte. Do you know anything about Lotte’s dealings there?
Dear Craig
Is there any way we can discuss further the meaning of “plantations” in Ivory Coast. I am researching this area and your information deviates from information from other sources. Your overall conclusion is correct, though; there could be serious implications for growers and for improved conditions throughout the supply chain.
Interesting and informative, thanks.
You may recall the smell of chocolate that wafted over Norwich for many years from Caleys factory, since taken over and then closed down.
A pity that Cadbury’s seems headed for the same fate, and that fair business practices build up over some time will be cast aside for profit.
good, uptodate blog about the facts that underline the riches of some of the most powerfull international companies who’s colonial past in the cocoa cartel has left us with large conglomerates producing cocoa.
Manufacturing chocolate was, up to the 1990 fully in the hands of those who exported it to Europe and America, only during the last ten fifteen years have we seen the fair trade movement make a real impact by producing their own chocolate.
Divine is an African brand and its good, off course you can’t fail green and Blacks, but there are also some very good South American producers that can make good cocoa and chocolate.
Swiss chocolate ought to be boycotted for all the right, at least ten reasons reasons, banking being one of them.
I have to agree with Craigs comments on belgian choci’s, not all of them carry their usual excellence.
I am not becrying the loss of Cadbury’s range of chocolates, but the fact that Kraft will now own Green nad Blacks, that the regime will be tightened and that another global brand has swallowed a comapny that had social responsibility written into the history books. I also fear for small producers and setting up a chocolate manufacturing operation/coop in Ghana could be the way forward out of this malaise, Kraft will try and change the arrangements I feel.
good blog, makes a change from the predictable lying of the ‘chilcouterie’and its predictable clients.
Barbara
Ah, yes, i used to love that smell! Coming into the city, parking on the old cattlemarket and smelling the chocolate factory, mmmmm. Thanks for the reminder. And thanks to Craig for yet more info i would otherwise never have known.
nik
Saw a quite amazing 3D Cadbury’s advert yesterday in the cinema before watching Avatar. Ghana was mentioned in it, which made my ears pick up having read this blog before going out, but apparently some people (on behalf of the people of Ghana, naturally) took offence:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/advertising/cadbury-accused-of-racial-stereotyping-in-chocolate-advert-1801020.html
Would the people of Ghana really have a problem with this sort of advert? Critics have apparently claimed it portrays Africans as “buffooning simpletons”, but I wonder if they’ve ever seen how British people are portrayed in our own adverts?
Is this it, Glenn:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ktLtvinZBs
They look like they’re having fun. But then, I’ve seen portrayals of “Irish” people, in films, that seriously irritated me. Buffooning simpletons aplenty. (It’s improved in recent times.)
dreoilin, don;t watch Shrooms 🙂
Shrooms? A film?
I’m laughing at MJ.
Got to lie down for half an hour. Just had the swineflu vaccine. Nearly didn’t.
“Just had the swineflu vaccine”.
Oh dear. Why dreoilin, why?
MJ, apparently because that’s one conspiracy of yours that she won’t buy into.
Everyone I know who’s had the vaccine (from old to young) is fine, dreoilin! But still:
EU to probe pharma over “false pandemic”
04 January 2010
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is to hold an emergency debate and inquiry this month into the “influence” exerted by drugmakers on the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) global H1N1 flu campaign.
The text of the resolution approved by the Assembly calling for the debate and inquiry states that: “in order to promote their patented drugs and vaccines against flu, pharmaceutical companies influenced scientists and official agencies responsible for public health standards to alarm governments worldwide and make them squander tight health resources for inefficient vaccine strategies”
http://www.pharmatimes.com/worldnews/article.aspx?id=17147
That was me.
No conspiracy of mine Larry. It’s just that taking a largely untested vaccine to protect against a largely innocuous virus never seemed a particularly sensible proposition. Perhaps that’s why the uptake has been so derisory. But I’m sure dreoilin can answer for herself, thanks all the same Larry.
I had swine flu. Just like normal flu. No idea what the fuss is about.
The side effects of Tamiflu seem to be worse than the actual swine flu might be – particularly as swine flu is pretty tame compared with other strains (such as the one that bit Poland in particular, which I also got). Still, taking Tamiflu will put a smile on the kindly features of Gruppenfuhrer D. Rumsfeld, who has a financial interest in its uptake.
Craig, I am not myself a natural political opponent of the former Empire. One can hardly live in Canada without having some appreciation for it. And yet, I found your comments about population displacement to be very illuminating. It seems to me that Africa got the rough end of the stick of Colonialism, without seeing any benefits. Not just land displacement, but 350 years of massive displacement caused by the very efficient operation of the cross-Atlantic slave trade. And then the Congo, 100 years ago, I read somewhere recently that 10 million died to feed the greed of a Belgium King: More deaths than in the holocaust. With trauma like this, relatively recently, it is hardly surprising that some countries have been in turmoil. And yet, during the business trips I used to make to Africa one always noted the remarkable cheerfulness of the people in adversity, their hard work, and their innate ability. One also noted the huge differences between the various African people, something most Europeans don’t understand.
“taking Tamiflu will put a smile on the kindly features of Gruppenfuhrer D. Rumsfeld, who has a financial interest in its uptake.”
It might be fair to point out that they didn’t know it would turn out so mild, when they started these balls rolling ? When you know that there seems to be a new mutant flu on the way, and you know that previous variants really have killed vast numbers of people, perhaps it’s better to err on the side of being able to help more people than turn out to need it ?
I mean, if we had an unexpectedly cold snap and ran out of salt for the roads, maybe some people would feel there should have been bigger stocks ? Like that.