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!