A Letter to Denman Island Chocolates

[the_fantastic_ms_fox]

Denman Island chocolate bars are awesome, and I want to buy them in the future, but I had some questions. So I emailed them.

I really enjoy this application of the Internet. I think I might even like it more than Desktop Tower Defense. It takes less time, and is more satisfying.



Dear Denman Island Chocolates,

I enjoy your chocolate bars but am reluctant to buy them over Camino and other brands because while your product's chocolate content is organic (which is great), I'm not sure what labour practices it is made under. The bars say "product of Canada," but I assume that the cocoa is grown elsewhere. I couldn't find your company green-lighted here, and this site only looks for slavery in chocolate manufacture, not overall economic fairness. So I thought I should email you.

Can you tell me what labour (or community economic development) standards are in place in the sourcing of your raw materials? Have you made any plans to use fair-trade certified chocolate?


Sincerely...

Comments

[hundun.livejournal.com]

Their response (received within about twenty minutes)


...We use two different chocolates to make our products. One is 72% cocoa mass and is certified Fair Trade. It is used exclusively in our Cocoa Loco and Rosemary, Baby bars. It also makes up between 25% and 50% of the mix for our other flavours. The other chocolate is 58% cocoa mass and is not Fair Trade. Since 2007 we have been able to source some of our inputs as certified Fair Trade. This is not an issue of accessibility but of quality. We continue to seek a quality Fair Trade alternative to the 58% cocoa mass chocolate we use. Unfortunately, as a small manufacturer, we do not have the market clout to be able to dictate terms to our suppliers, but I know we will eventually get there. We don't give up.

In the meantime, I can assure you that none of the cacao that goes into any of our products involves slavery in any way. It comes from Latin America and the Caribbean basin, mostly Peru and the Dominican Republic. Certified organic cacao plantations there are small family-owned and run holdings. I have visited organic cacao plantations in the DR and found that the farmers there receive a premium for their beans - because they're organic and high quality - which allows them a decent standard of living. Whether you or I would be happy with it is another question; working conditions in the so-called developing world are harder and pay much less than what we would accept from a job here in Canada, but the farmers in question consider them to be acceptable. Also, the fact that they are growing their crops organically means that they are not risking their health or the health of their children from exposure to agricultural chemicals - fungicides are particularly widely used in conventional operations - as well as being able to protect the health of their land and all the organisms they share the land with.

I hope this answers your question. Please contact me if there is anything else you need to know.

[hundun.livejournal.com]

Thanks. That's a pretty thorough response. And very honest. And fast! Thank you.

What do you mean in terms of lacking the market clout to dictate terms to your suppliers? Do you mean that you are looking for a fair trade supplier, as those available at present will not deliver a particular quality of bean because of a lack of demand?

[hundun.livejournal.com]

(their second response)
...That's right, except it's not a bean issue. The bottleneck is at the primary processing stage. This is where the beans (and sugar) are turned into "industrial" chocolate, i.e. chocolate used by secondary processors like Denman Island Chocolate. I really like the quality of the chocolate produced by our supplier, but they are slow to react to change and even sometimes resistant to it. But the good thing is that as we grow as a business, we can demand a different product. And there are more primary processors coming on stream, ones that are prepared to make the chocolate that their customers want. So the future is rosy; it's just the getting there that's a little grey. I fully expect to be using only Fair Trade chocolate within two years.

[saxifrage00.livejournal.com]

Cool. Thanks for posting this.

[neomeruru.livejournal.com]

Wow! When I asked about the sugarcane conditions in making Captain Morgan Rum, I basically got told to piss off. Their swiftness and clarity is honestly surprising to me.