In August of this year, Cadbury Australia announced that they plan to have Fairtrade Certification for their dairy milk chocolate by Easter 2010.

This is amazingly good news, from such a large producer, which will see the amount of Fairtrade products sold in Australia more than triple! This will allow more cocoa farmers in Africa to sell via Fairtrade, which will help improve their living standards, reduce child labour, and create a better future for their families and community.

Fairtrade certification means that the certification body (FLO-Cert) independently audits and monitors the supply chain to ensure that certain standards are met which encourage fair prices, environmentally sound farming practices, social development, and protection of workers. It’s estimated that at the moment, more than 200,000 children work in the cocoa fields of the Ivory Coast alone, some in slavery.

Cadbury really should be congratulated on making this decision. To contact them and say “good on ya”, visit here.

And to find out more about Fairtrade, visit www.fairtrade.com.au.