Photo Credit: Wall Street JournalInteresting piece in the Wall Street Journal this week about the Nestle company using fair-trade chocolate in its U.K. KitKats starting in January 2010. Here's an excerpt from the article by Deborah Ball:
Swiss food giant Nestlé SA announced plans to use fair-trade chocolate in its KitKat bars in the U.K., as part of its continuing effort to polish its image as a socially responsible corporation.
The world's largest food manufacturer said Monday that starting in January it would begin using fair-trade chocolate to make KitKats in the U.K., where the chocolate biscuit was originally born. Under fair trade terms, farmers receive a guaranteed minimum price as well as extra support for social and environmentally friendly projects.
KitKat is the U.K.'s No. 2 chocolate candy after Cadbury PLC's Dairy Milk bar, and it represents about a quarter of Nestlé's candy sales in Britain. The U.K. is Nestlé's second-largest chocolate market after Brazil and is by far the biggest consumer of KitKats. The company didn't disclose the cost of the move to fair-trade chocolate, but it said that the price of the candy in the U.K. wouldn't change.
The article goes on the describe Nestle as a company in need of an image make-over, partially due to the "1970s-era scandal around its practice of selling baby formula to mothers in the developing world."
I'm not going to speculate on what's driving Nestle's decision - the Wall Street Journal does a great job of that on its own. But I am glad that Nestle's making a change, particularly one that has the potential to make me feel less guilty about the Halloween candy I hand out next year. Maybe there's hope for fair-trade KitKats in the U.S. as well?
We'd love to hear what you think of Nestle's strategy - why are they doing it, do the reasons matter, and should we care?
Comments
Hmmm...
I think Nestle understands what I've thought for quite some time; Fair Trade is a label/certification that benefits people in this order:
1. Company's pocketbook
2. Consumer's conscience
3. Producer's quality of life
The price difference in using FT chocolate is so insignificant that Nestle won't bother to raise their prices which leads me to believe that the producers will benefit very little from this move.
I guess I'd be far more interested in the move if Nestle chose to upgrade the quality of their ingredients instead of opting for a label... I'd be far more interested if Nestle chose to work directly with cocoa producers to create a U.K.-only Kit Kat bar of superior quality; a Kit Kat produced through a mutually beneficial partnership between Nestle and -insert name of cocoa producer-. Of course, prices would surely have to rise.
Otherwise this seems more like "business as usual".
My thoughts are here:
http://www.fairfoodfight.com/blog/el-drag%C3%B3n/nestle-goes-fair-trade-...
Thanks for weighing in, Shawn. Why do you think the price that Nestle will pay will be so insignificant - because fair-trade isn't nearly as much as it's purported to be or because non-fair-trade is not so bad? Are you saying that Netsle won't actually pay more money for their same ingredients?
El Dragon, I wish your thoughts were HERE.
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