The outpouring of support for Cadbury’s commitment to switch to Fair Trade in the UK by the end of this summer has been great. Now that the UK’s leading chocolate bar producer has gone Fair Trade, we’re looking toward the leading chocolate companies in the US to follow Cadbury’s lead and follow through on their commitment to go Fair Trade.

Cadbury has announced plans to begin using Fair Trade certified cocoa in the summer of 2009 for England’s leading chocolate bar, Cadbury Dairy Milk. The significance of this fantastic news is that Cadbury is the first major chocolate brand to go Fair Trade certified with one of its main product lines, one of the goals Global Exchange and other organizations have been striving towards. Cadbury’s announcement proves what Global Exchange has been saying for years: it is viable for a major chocolate bar to go Fair Trade without passing a significant cost increase to consumers. Congratulations on this important victory to all of you who have taken action by buying a Fair Trade certified chocolate bar or writing a letter to bring us to this moment!

As we all know, it is critical to write companies to pressure them to improve their performance on human rights and the environment. But it is just as important to thank companies when they make a change for the better, so that company executives can bring an outpouring of positive feedback to their boards, shareholders, and employees to sustain their new, responsible practices and promote more change.

That is why we want to urge every one of you to participate in our thank you action to Cadbury at this critical moment in time!
Please join Global Exchange and fellow members of our partner Fair Trade advocacy organizations nationwide and around the world in generating as many letters as possible to:
  • congratulate Cadbury on the Fair Trade certification of their Dairy Milk bar in the UK.

  • ask Cadbury, Hershey (Cadbury’s US manufacturer) and Green and Black’s Organic (owned by Cadbury) to expand their commitment to Fair Trade in the United States by introducing more Fair Trade Certified products.

So head over to >the Global Exchange action page and Thank Cadbury for their commitment and ask them and other large chocolate companies to commit to Fair Trade throughout their whole supply chain.