Fairtrade cocoa simply wasn’t widely available before 2000 and it’s been a story of continual progress, supporting smallholder farmers in Peru, The Dominican Republic, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.
In May 2017, we became the first UK retailer to source all of our cocoa on Fairtrade terms. Every spoonful of cocoa we use, from the chocolate sprinkles on our doughnuts through to the chocolate chips in our Irresistible cookies, is benefitting Fairtrade cocoa farmers. Our commitment contributes around £500,000 per year in Fairtrade Premium to farmers across West Africa and Central America.
Watch Awa Traore's story and find out how buying Fairtrade products is supporting women to become leaders in Côte d’Ivoire.
As part of our commitment to Fairtrade cocoa, we have been contributing funding to Fairtrade Africa’s Women’s School of Leadership (WSOL) since 2017 in Côte d’Ivoire. In West Africa, women represent a significant proportion of the farming workforce and are essential to the sustainability of the entire cocoa industry. . However, women can have limited access to decision making forums and land rights, and additional household responsibilities can mean leadership roles are often out of reach.
In order to strengthen women’s participation and leadership in the management of their communities, organisations and households the Women’s School of Leadership is a training, mentoring and coaching programme which supports women and some men to better understand gender issues and integrate women further within membership and decision-making activities. Through the WSOL, participants are supported to acquire knowledge of human rights and gender issues in their communities, in addition to skills of leadership, negotiation, financial management, entrepreneurship and decision making which enable participants to fulfil leadership roles within their respective producer organisations and communities. Since 2017, the programme has positively impacted thousands of members of the communities in Côte d’Ivoire. The programme has led to students carrying out community awareness sessions, establishing gender committees within their producer organisations and setting up additional income-generating activities. Find out more by clicking here
“I was not aware of my value as a woman, I was not aware of my potential.” KOUAME AYA BEATRICE, Member of ECAKOOG Cooperative and WSOL Graduate (pictured).
"I understand better the interest for women to be involved in cooperatives. Only then can we make our voices heard and make our cooperatives stronger." – Mariam Kanzie, Member of SOCAREBIA Cooperative and WSOL Graduate (pictured).
