Ghanaian Food Masterclass

[pic courtesy of tikichris]

Last night we celebrated Ghana and Cadbury Dairy Milk going Fairtrade with a feast like no other.

Our Ghanaian Food Masterclass was a wonderful introduction to Ghana, it's colourful culture and its incredible food.

[pic courtesy of  silamuta]

Our menu was pretty spectacular (and a first for everyone). We started with Plantain 'Kelewele' and Salted Peanuts. Followed by a main of Zebra with Jollof Rice. Served in what we came to learn was the Ghanaian staple of tomato sauce made with loads of tomatoes, chili and garlic. This is what it looked like:

To end, of course, we had more than our fair share of Cadbury's Fairtrade Dairy Milk chocolate. NOM.

We all played a role in the preparation of our meals, by blending the herbs and spices that the zebra was marinaded in before being fried up and added to the spicy, unctuous sauce.

Look at all the beautiful ingredients we got to play with (and what we did with them underneath).

[pics courtesy of Anniemole]

See pictures taken by Anniemole, Tikichris and Silamuta and read about it on Londonist.

Do you know much about Ghanaian food? Do you have any questions? Let us know.

Fairtrade pricing, how it actually works

We've had quite a few questions about what Cadbury is actually paying for cocoa, the market value of cocoa right now and how it all actually works.

The price paid for cocoa has a set minimum price of $1600 per tonne. That's just a minimum, so Cadbury pays the market price when the market price is higher. This is part of what makes Fairtrade so interesting: it's still about trade. And as Barbara explained  last week, when the free market can take care of the cocoa price and farmers, it should. At the time of the announcement, the cocoa price was actually higher at around $2000.

On top of that there's the social premium which is fixed at $150 per tonne. That goes into a 'kitty' to be used as the farmers see fit. The decisions about how to spend the money is made by a group of farmers who work together to determine how best it will be used. 

So here it is, if you have any other questions let us know, that's what we're here for!

Going, going, GONE!

Anyone following us on Twitter might have noticed a little name change this morning. That's right people, we switched from 'GoingFairtrade' to 'GoneFairtrade'. And it made us really, really happy. Have you bought your first Fairtrade bar yet?

Our 3 favourite pictures from the factory

Barbara from Fairtrade loving the pouring chocolate at the factory - weren't we all?!



Absolutely awesome, Cadbury Dairy Milk wrappers with the Fairtrade logo.
Rolls and rolls and rolls of the stuff.



Finally, we were really amused to see this sign in the factory. And yes, it is, quite literally a dentist.
A dentist has been in the factory for all staff and their family for ages.

"This feels like a dream"

When Trevor Bond, MD of Cadbury in Britain and Ireland asked Lorraine Cookson, one of the Birmingham campaigners for Fairtrade, how she felt knowing that Cadbury Dairy Milk was officially Fairtrade she told him that it felt like a dream.

She went on to tell us about a farmer she'd met a few years ago, Justino Peck, who was able to give his 11 year old son pocket money for the first time in his life thanks to Fairtrade.

After working on the move for a couple of years (and even for us at the blog, having written about it for the past few months), actually seeing the Fairtrade Dairy Milk bars coming off the line in Bournville is hugely emotional. And knowing that people like Justino Peck's lives have been completely transformed by Fairtrade makes this epic moment all the more poignant.

So today is a big day, dreamed about and worked for by so many. And we're delighted to see that we're not the only ones who are excited. You can read all about it in The Telegraph, The Times and The Guardian. Of course the Fairtrade website was also delighted to inform its visitors of this "UK first as Cadbury Dairy Milk takes Fairtrade further into mainstream". Fairtrade Cadbury Dairy Milk means that Fairtrade products will now be available in over thirty thousand stores!

We know you must have questions and we're here to answer them, but to start, here are some of the questions that were asked of the Cadbury and Fairtrade team earlier this week:

What about other parts of Cadbury?

Cadbury have always said that this move is the first step in a long journey with Fairtrade. That hasn't changed since our webcast all those months ago check out question number 9.

Is there any going back?

If anything demonstrates Cadbury's commitment to Fairtrade it's the timing of this move. Making such a bold switch during a recession is testament to how committed Cadbury is to Fairtrade.

Is Cadbury losing money on Dairy Milk now? Are there huge margin cuts?

This move has been assessed from an overall business point of view. And like all costs for the overall business, any expense (from marketing to staff) can be seen as a dent in the margin. For Cadbury this is an investment.

How does the minimum price for Fairtrade cocoa compare to the market price?

Farmers get paid a Fairtrade minimum for their cocoa, or the market value, whichever is higher. Additionally, there's a social premium which is a fixed amount per tonne of cocoa.

O-Ghana-bama!

The whole of Ghana got rather excited last week as they welcomed a special guest. Yes. Mr President and the rest of the Obama clan arrived in Accra last Friday. People even made T-shirts to mark the occasion.

The whole thing was very nearly dampened by three solid weeks of rain. But just hours before Air Force One touched down, the Ghana sun came out. And so did the people.

The Ghana blogosphere has covered it a-plenty so here are some useful bits:

Abena has covered the whole visit

There’s a full copy of his speech on Esi’s blog

And the BBC has some lovely pics

Will someone make a T-shirt for when we get to Accra?

Image courtesy of Flickr

Hiplife

Globalisation. Love it or hate it you cannot ignore the beautiful synthesis of expressive cultures. Take hip hop music for example. Whether you trace it to New York's South Bronx or the villages of West Africa, hip-hop has become the voice of a generation demanding to be heard.

We recently came across the Ghanaian Hiplife music scene which we find fascinating:

Hiplife fuses highlife and hip hop. It is kind of a  a mix of dancehall, reggae and Ghanaian highlife music. Recorded in Ghanaian languages, hiplife is rapidly gaining popularity throughout West Africa and abroad.

We will dig into this culture in more depth and invite someone knowledgeable to guest write here in the future. In the meantime, take a look a look at this stuff, it's well good

This one is a classic  tribute to Nkrumah, independent Ghana's first president and his legacy

And this one is one of the most popular tracks of recent years from a rapper called v.i.p

You can read more about Ghanaian music here

We're in the garden

Well, the factory in the garden. Yes, we're in Bournville and we've already met this lovely lady.
Here what she had to say.

Who would you like to hear from?

This Friday, we're off to Bournville on a TOP SECRET assignment.

No, seriously, I can't tell you what it's about because it'll ruin the fun.

What I can tell you, is that while I'm there, I'm going to interview Cadbury staff. I'm talking tea ladies, accountants, factory workers, chocolate tasters... the works!

Is there anyone you'd like to hear from especially?

Let us know and we'll do our utmost to make that wish come true.

Sports in the Garden

Ahh, summertime. All this sunshine, tennis and talk of picnics made us thing of Cadbury way back when. We've blogged about The Factory in the Garden before and when we were in the archives we saw some beautiful pictures of sports taking place on Cadbury grounds (like the guy playing cricket above).

As keen sportsmen, Richard and George Cadbury encouraged sports and other recreational activity, often playing cricket themselves. Sports facilities included football, hockey and cricket pitches, tennis and squash racquet courts and a bowling green.

Have a look at the rest of the photos over here.