PRESS RELEASES
20% increase in fair-trade chocolate worldwide
Royal Verkade, a Dutch subsidiary of United Biscuits, announced last Thursday that they will be using 100% Fair Trade cocoa & sugar in their products from this Autumn onwards. The Dutch household name, established in 1886 and one of the most respected brands in the country, is the first A-list chocolate producer worldwide to make the transition to Fair Trade production on a large scale. With this move, the total production of Fair Trade cocoa worldwide will be boosted by 20%. Most of Verkade products will be Fair Trade by the fall of 2008, with their entire range of cocoa products sourced fairly by early 2009.
Though many players were involved in this decision, a major turning point occurred late last year. STOP THE TRAFFIK Netherlands (STT) and local NGO Fairfood ran a full-page advertisement linking Verkade with the worst forms of child labour in Ivory Coast. "Within a day we had a phone call from Fair Trade", states Antonie Fountain of STT Holland, "saying that Verkade had just called them to talk about the possibility of Fair Trade sourcing for their cocoa."
Seven months later one of Holland's largest chocolate makers has made this bold move. "We're very excited about this landmark decision, and call all other chocolate producers to follow Verkade's bold move", says Fountain. STOP THE TRAFFIK congratulate Verkade for making this historic move. Currently there are over 150,000 children working under the worst forms of child labour in the cocoa industry in the Ivory Coast alone. An estimated 12,000 of whom have been trafficked. Over the last two years, STOP THE TRAFFIK has been staging a global campaign against human trafficking in the cocoa-sector, calling on the public to let their voice be heard that we demand all manufacturers to supply Traffik-Free cocoa.
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