Fair Trade Candy and Hot Chocolate Available for the Holidays

Posted 12/9/04

http://www.newfarm.org/news/1104/111904/fair_trade.shtml

Fair trade moves into confectionery, hot chocolate

Though many Americans are still unfamiliar with the fair trade concept, that
could change as a new wave of fair trade products based on fair trade
fruits, sugar and chocolate begins to hit store shelves.

Among the newcomers are Equal Exchange Organic Chocolates, from West
Bridgewater, MA-based Equal Exchange, which are made with Fair Trade
Certified cocoa and sugar from small farmer cooperatives, and Better World
Hot Cocoa from Waterbury, VT-based Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.

Fair trade has also moved into teas where Bethesda, MD-based Honest Tea
introduced Peach-Oo-La-Long Tea, a product Honest Tea says was the most
successful ready-to-drink tea introduction in the natural channel in 2003.
The beverage is made from Fair Trade certified oolong tea with black tea and
organic peach puree.

In the UK, the charity Oxfam has opened Britain's first fair trade coffee
shop ­ The Progreso Café in Covent Garden, central London. The café is a
product of collaboration between Oxfam and coffee cooperatives in Ethiopia,
Honduras and Indonesia.

"If the fair trade cafe concept flies with consumers who will be exposed to
a broadening array of fair trade foods, look for other packaged food and
beverage categories to jump on the fair trade bandwagon," said Tom Vierhile,
executive editor of Productscan Online.