So the Fairtrade Kit Kat has hit the stores and Morrissons in particular have been plugging it with a leaflet at all their checkouts and whilst my initial response wasn’t very positive I thought I’d give Nestle a chance and give their leaflet a read.
The lovely people at Nestle (sarcasm) have decided that when they’re not killing babies they are going to enter a long term commitment to improve the lives of cocoa farming communities, the Fairtrade 4-finger Kit Kat being the beginning of this.
The other ‘long term commitments’ laid out by Nestle include
A £65 million investment over the next 10 years into programmes that address key social, environmental and economic issues affecting cocoa farmers.
Helping farmers to improve their cocoa quality
Nurturing a sustainable future by providing some more cocoa trees
Better social conditions for cocoa farming communities
Now whilst all this is well and good somewhere along the lines Nestle have forgotten the point of their leaflet…this leaflet is aimed at plugging their ‘aren’t we lovely here’s a Fairtrade Kit Kat’ thing however their cocoa plan makes no commitment to making their products Fairtrade which suggests that as I suspected originally this is nothing more than a ‘buy our products’ gimmick and whilst it’s fantastic that some of their farmers are now going to be paid properly I wonder why Nestle won’t do this with all of their chocolate? (I have e-mailed them this question!)
It’s not just me wondering this either, in an article in Christianity Magazine man of many trades Steve Chalke says:
“Though we understand that it is hard to make all products ethical overnight, we want to see that this is more than a token gesture.
“So, we intend to keep the pressure on Nestlé until their commitment is global and product wide, like their competitor Mars.
“No chocolate should have the bitter aftertaste of slavery. Therefore our campaign continues.”
So there’s my thoughts, I won’t be buying any Nestle until they show that they care for their farmers rather than their pockets!
“no chocolate should have the bitter aftertaste of slavery” brilliant
Mark, it is worse than Nestlé not making a commitment to go 100% Fairtrade – and Fairtrade KitKat involves just 1% of Nestlé’s cocoa purchase – it is using Fairtrade KitKat to divert attention from the following facts.
Nestlé has been taken to court in the US for failing to act on a 2001 agreement to end child slavery in its cocoa supply chain and in the past has boycotted a meeting by Senator Harkin (co-sponsor of the Harkin-Engel Protocol in the US) called to examine lack of progress. There are 11 million people dependent on cocoa farming in West Africa, many of them dependent on Nestlé. The KitKat products involved in this scheme will benefit only 6,000 farmers. There is a danger that the improved conditions for these farmers will divert attention from the many others outside the scheme, and be used deliberately to this end by Nestlé.
Stop the Traffik, founded by Steve Chalke, the United Nations Special Advisor on Community Action Against Human Trafficking, said in response to the announcement that ‘two finger’ Kit Kats and all of Nestlé’s other chocolate products ““will continue to exploit the chocolate slaves of the Ivory Coast from where Nestlé source most of their cocoa”.” See:
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/10757
It is interesting to note that the amount Nestlé will pay on the Fairtrade premium for the cocoa it is due to buy in 2010 (less than £400,000) is less than 1% of expenditure on its current UK Nescafé advertising campaign (£43 million). For its money, Nestlé has generated unwarranted good news stories around the world.
This is a similar situation to its Fairtrade coffee, which involves just 0.1% of the coffee farmers dependent on it, but is used to suggest it is making a huge difference, providing cover for continued unethical practices.
In addition, Nestlé is the most boycotted company in the UK and one of the four most boycotted companies on the planet according to GMIPoll because of the way it pushes its breastmilk substitutes. Nestlé systematically breaches the baby milk marketing standards adopted by the World Health Assembly, undermines breastfeeding and contributes to the unnecessary death and suffering of babies. According to UNICEF, 1.5 million babies die around the world every year because they are not breastfed. Even Nestlé’s Global Public Affairs Manager, Dr. Gayle Crozier Willi, admitted in 2007 that Nestlé is ‘widely boycotted’.
Fairtrade KitKat will be added to the boycott list. The boycot has forced some changes in Nestlé marketing practices and policies, but the company, the market leader, refuses to make all necessary changes and is still the worst of the baby food companies. At the present time it is being targeted for practices that include claiming its infant formula ‘protects’ babies – it does not, babies fed on it are more likely to become sick than breastfed babies and in conditions of poverty, they are more likely to die. See:
http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2009/11/nestle-fairtrade-kitkat.html
Perhaps most disgraceful of all is that the UK Minister for Trade and Development, Gareth Thomas MP, brushed aside a question at a UN press conference about Nestlé’s record in developing countries by citing the benefits to the farmers supplying cocoa for the Fairtrade KitKat. For what I think he should have said see:
http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2009/12/nestle-kitkat-minister.html
Nestlé’s Fairtrade product should be seen in this context. According to a recent report the Fairtrade mark has already been damaged through its association with Nestlé. See:
http://boycottnestle.blogspot.com/2009/12/nestle-damages-fairtrade-mark.html
Mike thanks for replying, I see your linked to babymilkaction.org which I’ve been on several times before.
I agree completely with what you say, I did a blog post when Nestle first announced it and I agree that it’s nothing but trying to take the attention away from all the bad things they do.
The leaflet from Morrissons which is a Nestle produced leaflet was aimed as a marketing to the fairtrade kit kat and talked about their cocoa plan and tried to imply that the two were linked which is ridiculous.
I shall be continuing to boycott them!