Our Response to Panorama

If you watched Panorama last night you probably have some questions.

Cadbury is clear that the use of child labour in the production of cocoa is unacceptable.  And this belief is evident in our investments in the Cocoa Partnership and Fairtrade – both of which work to alleviate the causes of child labour by improving farmer incomes and access to education.

We want to share some of our work to date. For a number of years Cadbury has been working in Ghana with the cross industry group to address the causes of child labour and in 2008 we set up the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership, a £45M investment over 10 years, and one of the issues we are addressing is child labour along with women's rights, HIV and malaria.  We’ve blogged about this work a few times over the year, and if you’re read any of those posts you’ll know that we are working in 100 communities in Ghana, which translates into around 10,000 farmers and their families.  
 
We were pleased to see that the programme acknowledged our relationship with Fairtrade. As Panorama pointed out last night, FLO-CERT has spotted incidences of child labour and worked quickly and effectively to put an end to it in the respective communities. We think this demonstrates Fairtrade’s commitment to work towards eliminating child labour in cocoa production. The Fairtrade Foundation has responded to the programme on their website.

Fairtrade isn’t the only organisation we’re working with. Cadbury is also working with the International Cocoa Initiative. The ICI runs a programme called Yen Daake ‘Our Future’, where communities have defined their vision for their future with support from local NGOs. As part of this they agree the role of children in the community and which jobs they should and shouldn’t do. This work is all detailed on ICI’s website.

Win win win

You know how it is with us, it's all give, give, give.During Fairtrade Fortnight we were giving away an album we created with Paolo Nutini to people who took part in The Big Swap. If you downloaded your album, we hope you enjoyed.

Fairtrade Fornight has come to a brilliant close, with great success, but we've got a little more giving left in us. We have 10 copies of the Cadbury Music Big Swap Songs CD signed by Paolo Nutini to give away.

How do you win? We're looking for chocolatey versions of your favourite songs, bands and anything music related.Here are some examples:

“Flake, rattle & roll”  (Shake, rattle & roll)
“Anything but the twirl” (Anything but the  girl)
“Bournville to be wild” (Born to be wild)

Go on people, dazzle us.

Manchester vs. Leeds - The Results

At the beginning of the month we shared some news about the wonderfully spirited competition between Manchester and Leeds around Fairtrade Fortnight and The Big Swap.

At the time of writing the two cities were head-to-head.

So which city made the most swaps during the fortnight? Well, that would be Leeds.

Naturally John Baron over on the Guardian Leeds blog was pretty chuffed. Leeds 'out-swapped' Manchester by 5000 products. Read more about it over here.

Have you downloaded your album yet?

Remember you don't have to do anything to download Cadbury's Big Swap Songs apart from tell us what you swapped. The album has an exclusive track with Paulo Nutini and some awesome songs recorded by Ghanaian talent remaking some British classics.

Go to cadburymusic.com and get the album, it's easy peasy.

Fairtrade makes news in Palenstine

We wrote about Fairtrade olive oil a couple of weeks ago and shared the story of Mahmoud Issa and the olive grove that supports his family. So naturally, we were chuffed to see that Fairtrade had made it into The Palestine Telegraph.The article shares details of Zaytoun and the trailblazing efforts of everyone working to make Fairtrade olive oil a success, including European Commission, the Palestinian Farmers Union and Bethlehem University's Fairtrade Development Center, Oxfam GB.

While fair trade has long been benefitting small-scale farmers across the globe, the project is the first of its kind in Palestine. At the end of 2008, the Palestinian olive growers' product became the first olive oil in the world to gain the Fairtrade Labeling Organisation's (FLO) international certification. The oil is now being marketed by Zaytoun, a UK-based ethical trading company that has entered into a long-term contract with the farmers to buy whatever olive oil they are willing to sell.

Read the full article here.

Fairtrade Fortnight - all over the show

We think one of the most awesome things about Fairtrade Fortnight is the way it brings local communities together.

Throughout the fortnight, we loved hearing news of Swaps and tea parties and get togethers happening all over the country, like these:

Nether Stowe School pupils exchanged their usual break time refreshments for Fairtrade tea.

FAIRTRADE coffee made in Uganda proved a hit with visitors to Bury Unitarian Church.

Dundonald Primary School welcomed Hella Alikuru, an advisor to Fairtrade workers in Uganda, who visited the in an effort to teach the children and their parents about fair trade products.

Fairtrade Fortnight 2010

Well Fairtrade Fortnight has come to a close and we're going to spend the next week sharing the highlights of the past two weeks with you.

The Big Swap site is still buzzing with swaps and of course you can still download Cadbury's exclusive album with Paolo Nutini. 

What have you swapped this Fairtrade Fortnight? Did you attend any tea parties? We'd love to hear from you.

The Invasion of the Tea Ladies

We don't think there's anything better than promoting a great cause and having loads of fun while doing it. 

Fairtrade's Tea Ladies were out in force doing just that, check it out in the video above.

Have you swapped a regular item for a Fairtrade one this Fairtrade Fortnight? Don't forget to download your free Cadbury Music album at cadburymusic.com.

TWENTY SEVEN THOUSAND and counting!

 

So far we've had around 27,000 downloads of our exclusive album with Paolo Nutini.

If you haven't downloaded it already, it couldn't be easier, all you need to do is go to cadburymusic.com and tell us what Fairtrade item you bought this Fairtrade Fortnight and it's all yours.

Cadbury Big Swap Songs

Paolo Nutini fans and fans of Fairtrade are sure to love this full length promo. It's full of colour and charm. As the lyrics say: "nothing's going to bring me down". Enjoy.