Fair Trade Chocolate Products

Chocolate and chocolate derivates, in all its forms and tastes, is one of the worlds most used desert. No matter if we are talking about different sorts of chocolate bars, candy, or liquid varieties, the truth is that many people cannot conceive living a day without this delicious treat. It is the perfect gift for someone dear and there are moments in people's lives which are automatically associated with chocolate (try to imagine a Christmas day without any sort of chocolate, if you can).

There are as many chocolate varieties on the market as there are people's tastes. There are more expensive and exquisite assortments, as there are very affordable ones. There are even many chocolate varieties appropriate for people who are not allowed to eat any sweets or those following a strict diet.

Fair Trade chocolate is an organization that protects the laborers who work in this field and also informs consumers about different facts about this industry and its products.

The Fair Trade movement focuses on exports from developing countries to developed countries, most notably handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, sugar, tea, bananas, honey, cotton, wine, fresh fruit, and so on.

Chocolate comprises a series of foods that are produced from the seed of the tropical cacao tree. The cocoa tree is native to lowland tropical South America, but nowadays two-thirds of the entire world's cocoa is produced in Western Africa. Because of the regions cocoa plant live and being harvested, many workers who pick up the cocoa beans have been mistreated in the past. There have been allegations that in Africa children, aged 12 to 16 were used as slaves on cocoa plantations. Children are generally found traveling or begging and lured to the Ivory Coast, where they are sold. Traffickers promise them paid work, housing, and education; instead, they are forced to labor and undergo severe abuse working on the cacao farms. Slavery and other exploitative working conditions can be difficult to detect because of the remote plantations, but recently more and more international associations, Fair Trade Chocolate included, are trying to ensure workers correct working conditions.

For example, if the chocolate is being produced under poor working conditions the organization will not certify the cocoa beans. So Fair Trade Chocolate holds the highest standards to its certification process making sure we know what we are getting and it protects not only the consumer's rights, but also the workers' rights. You would not savor in the same way a delicious chocolate bar if you would knew that the cocoa beans from which it was produced have been picked by enslaved children, would you?

It very easy for cocoa plantation owners to hide the fact that they use slaves and civil rights movements together with food producing associations, such as Fair Trade chocolate, intensify their efforts to help the workers' conditions.

Fair Trade chocolate products are the only chocolate products at present which are guaranteed not to contain any cocoa harvested from a slave plantation.

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