Ethically Sourced Chocolate in Demand in Oz

Media reports indicate that the sales of ethically sourced chocolate in Australia have seen incredible growth of more than 1,500 percent in the past two years. The sales figures for 2010 showed that Australians spent 87 million dollars on Fairtrade chocolate, where local suppliers buy only produce that does not exploit workers, compared with 50 million dollars on Fairtrade coffee, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

It was the first time that ethically sourced chocolate had overtaken coffee produced under the same conditions.

The increase was due to a number of large confectionary companies, including Cadbury, Nestle, Arnotts and Mars, starting to use ethically sourced cocoa in the past 12 months.

World Vision Australia chief executive the Reverend Tim Costello urged consumers to buy ethically produced confectionery for Easter.When I visited West Africa in 2008 I saw first-hand the terrible working conditions for children in the cocoa fields," he said.

"'It became apparent to me that we in the Western world were eating cheap chocolate on the backs of trafficked and exploited children and something had to be done," he added.

Source-ANI