Cadbury's Dairy Milk has gone Fairtrade PA

CADBURY’S Dairy Milk chocolate bars have been relaunched as Fairtrade – catapulting the Third World-friendly trade name into the mainstream.

The first of the new bars were rolling off the production lines this morning, bound for the shelves of almost 30,000 supermarkets, newsagents and retailers across the country.

With Dairy Milk alone worth around £200million a year in sales, its rebirth as a certified Fairtrade product is expected to boost total UK Fairtrade sales by 25 per cent from the current level of around £700million.

The move represents a significant step in the sustainable trade and development movement, effectively tripling the amount of cocoa sold under Fairtrade terms in Ghana from around 5,000 to 15,000 tonnes a year.

The Cadbury factory in Bournville, Birmingham, has begun churning out 9,000 bars an hour, and should put 300 million on the shelves in a year.

Trevor Bond, managing director of Cadbury Britain and Ireland, said: "Having announced our intention to achieve Fairtrade certification for our flagship brand - Cadbury Dairy Milk - only a few months ago, it is exciting that these bars are now rolling off the production lines in Bournville.

"This creates a tipping point for Fairtrade with Fairtrade Cadbury Dairy Milk bars available to all, with the same great taste and at no extra cost.

"I've seen the new bars and I feel enormous pride that we are the first mainstream confectionery product in the UK to display the Fairtrade mark."

Harriet Lamb, executive director of the Fairtrade Foundation, said: "This is a real milestone for Fairtrade and for cocoa growers in Ghana.

"Cadbury Dairy Milk will create a step change in awareness of Fairtrade here in the UK, while in Ghana it could potentially transform the lives and opportunities for thousands of people in cocoa growing communities.

"From today, lovers of Cadbury Dairy Milk will be able to make their purchase in the knowledge that they are supporting a brighter future for very small-scale cocoa farmers, their families and their villages."

It is an initiative that could cost the confectionery giant money, but Cadbury's global corporate affairs director, Alex Cole, said it was "an investment worth making" and could in future expand to other product lines.

She said: "Cadbury is a very well-known brand. This is going to mean everybody in the country becomes a Fairtrade consumer because everybody buys Cadbury Dairy Milk at some point during the course of a year.

"Rather than paying a special price or a special shelf or even a special shop to buy Fairtrade, you'll be able to buy it in every newsagent and supermarket."

Barbara Crowther, director of policy and communications for the Fairtrade Foundation, said the move was well-timed, despite the current economic downturn.

She said: "I think this is going to send out a signal right across the Fairtrade world - not just for the growers, but for other companies.

"In the current economic climate, even though people are feeling pinched a little bit more, their values when they go shopping are still really important to them - especially when it comes to treating people well, and especially when it comes to expectations on companies to behave responsibly. So in some ways this is a very good time for Cadbury to be doing this.

"You wouldn't play with your top-selling chocolate bar. I think the fact that they have led the way with their best-selling product shows the depth of the commitment that they have made.

"From the growers' point of view, there couldn't have been a more important time, because developing countries are feeling the credit crunch even more than we are.

"They've seen huge price rises over the past year; they've seen the price of fertiliser double in many countries because the price of oil rose last year, so it's been incredibly difficult for farmers to make ends meet."

Cadbury's Fairtrade Dairy Milk bars are available in the shops from today.